MATTERS OF URGENCY

Senator FARUQI (New South Wales—Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens) (17:37): House prices are rising at their fastest rate in four years. Instead of helping, Labor is pouring fuel on fire. This housing crisis is not a mistake.

It is not an accident; it's the foreseeable result of decades of political choices to treat housing as an investment scheme for the wealthy instead of a basic human right. Labor has doubled down on this rotten system, defending billions in tax breaks for property investors while shovelling more public money into the pockets of developers and banks. They've expanded the five per cent deposit scheme, a policy that every economist predicted would inflate prices.

They've refused to touch negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions, a $180 billion gift to landlords and property speculators. Every year, renters pay the price while investors cash in. As families are pushed out of their suburbs and young people give up hope of ever owning a home, Labor has done its best to blame migrants for their own failures.

They have scapegoated vulnerable people of colour who come here seeking safety, opportunity and community—people who are, themselves, being crushed by the system. Let's be clear: it's not migrants who rigged the tax system. It's not migrants who refuse to build public housing.

It's not migrants who refuse to cap rents. It's Labor and the Liberals. They're both in bed with the property developers, the real estate lobby and the big banks.

Everyone deserves a secure, affordable home, and that means ending obscene tax handouts. That means freezing and capping rents and launching an ambitious build of public and affordable housing. The Greens are the only party willing to take on the profiteers and fight for housing as a human right.