QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Ms O'NEIL (Hotham—Minister for Housing, Minister for Homelessness and Minister for Cities) (14:37): I'll just start with the why. We're a pro-supply government. We've got a challenge facing our country because, for 40 years, we haven't been building enough homes, and that's why we're building a better housing system.

That includes the government building homes, something that was not done at all when those opposite were in office. I'm asked about the definition under the legislation of what is a new build. That is how the legislation works.

I'll take the member to the budget papers. They're very clear on what does and doesn't satisfy the definition. Page 6 of the relevant— Opposition members interjecting— Ms O'NEIL: I don't know what the interjections are.

I'm answering the exact question I was asked. The SPEAKER: The minister was asked a question of the budget. She's referring to budget papers.

I ask everyone to calm down and just listen. If she's getting an answer, the member will want to hear the answer as well. Ms O'NEIL: I take you to page 6 of the relevant budget fact sheet, which gives very clear examples of what is and isn't a new build.

A 'newly constructed apartment bought off the plan' is a new build, a 'duplex constructed through a knockdown rebuild replacing a single freestanding house' is a new build; and a 'residential construction on previously vacant land' is a new build. It's also very clear about what doesn't meet the threshold: an 'established property that has recently been extended', a 'freestanding house constructed through a knockdown rebuild replacing an older, smaller freestanding house', a 'granny flat built adjacent to an established property that is not eligible for negative gearing'— Honourable members interjecting— Ms O'NEIL: I could go on.

It's actually in the budget papers, which, hopefully, those members have managed to familiarise themselves with. The SPEAKER: Order! Just pause for a moment.

The minister is referring to budget papers for a direct question she was asked, and everyone is just yelling and screaming. You can't have it both ways if you ask a specific question and the minister is giving specific answers to the member who was entitled to ask her question and you don't like that answer. Everyone has just got to show some more restraint.

I hope I've made myself clear. Ms O'NEIL: Thank you, Speaker. I'm respectful of the member opposite who's asked this question and the question that she has brought before the parliament.

But I think it is also fairly obvious, to all of us, the politics that are being played here. Opposition members interjecting— Ms O'NEIL: Those opposite are doing everything that they can not to engage in the deep meaning of what our parliament has done this morning, and that is take a broken housing system— The SPEAKER: The minister will pause. The member for Maranoa was on a warning.

He'll leave the chamber under 94(a). The member for Casey and the member for Moncrieff are also on warnings. The member for Maranoa then left the chamber.

Ms O'NEIL: The bill that the lower house passed this morning is about something really important not just to the people I represent and not just to the people that we represent but to the people that those opposite represent in parliament. Instead of coming into this parliament and engaging in the new opportunities that we are opening up for first home buyers around this country, they are trying to engage with everything but that.

Now, they can play political parlour games. I've been in opposition. It's very frustrating.

I understand. But I can tell the Australian people that, no matter what they say opposite, we will not be deterred from the task that is in front of us, and that is a housing market that has been breaking slowly but surely over a 40-year period. We have got homeownership rates around this country falling through the floor, yet those opposite will not come into the parliament and properly engage on what to do about it.

Well, we are proud of the bill that has passed the parliament this morning—not just a level playing field for first home buyers but 75,000 rental households into a home of their own, and that's the opportunity they deserve.