PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS

Mr REBELLO (McPherson) (18:57): I rise to speak on this debate in relation to housing investment. As the opposition, it's our responsibility to hold this government to account, but what frustrates me time and time again—we've seen it just now from the member for Forde and we've seen it in the content of this motion—is it is not the responsibility of the government to spend their time talking about what's happened in the past with former governments.

But all we're seeing is a government that doesn't have its own plan that it's actually able to execute. They speak about a further $2 billion of investment. It's all well and good to talk about money that's being thrown at different issues, but when Australians don't actually see the benefit and when Australians don't see the outcome, there's something seriously wrong.

I also want to use this opportunity to point out something else that we're seeing in this housing debate. There's a lot of focus from those opposite on social housing. There is a role for social housing; I'm not denying that.

What I am denying are the figures that are being constantly used by members of the government in relation to how we compare homes being built now as opposed to previously, because it's one thing for government to build social housing; it's another for government to create the economic conditions to enable the private sector to do what it does best and build new properties and build new houses.

What we're seeing at the moment is a government that is not making any inroads whatsoever when it comes to the removal of regulation and red tape in the housing industry, something that will actually bring down the cost and reduce the delays associated with new builds. We're not seeing a government that's making meaningful action to build new homes quickly. We're not seeing anything from the government that is going to incentivise investment in new builds—new builds that are affordable, and I do make that distinction.

The coalition, by alternative, has spoken about a $5 billion infrastructure plan. I do think that the infrastructure plan to invest in enabling infrastructure that's been spoken of is important, but it doesn't go far enough. When I speak to developers, they often say one of the biggest obstacles in producing new builds is the enabling infrastructure.

It's the cost of the roads, the cost of the sewerage, the water, the powerlines—all of that. That is something the federal government can assist with, but we're not seeing any of those long-term approaches from this government. In fact, Labor, keep in mind, promised Australians more homes at the last election, but they're already around 80,000 to 100,000 homes behind target, with no state or territory meeting their share.

Despite these billions of dollars on housing programs, Australians aren't able to see the homes that are being delivered. When we were in government, under the coalition, around 200,000 homes were built each year. Under Labor we're seeing completions running around 170,000 per year.

Despite around $80 billion for housing programs under Labor, fewer homes are being built than under the former coalition government. So if we're actually holding government to account and if we're actually looking at whether or not taxpayer funds are being used to create more houses and more opportunities for young people in particular to enter the housing market, they're not.

That's really concerning. We've seen the Housing Australia Future Fund absolute failure, with $11.4 billion tied up but—get this—only 895 homes delivered in 2½ years. If we've seen barely any homes being built but billions of dollars committed, again, something is seriously wrong.

Australians deserve delivery, not delay. I've spoken in this place before about the National Construction Code, which has now expanded to more than 2,000 pages. This adds tens of thousands of dollars to new builds.

There's no effort from this government to address that. There's no effort to rein in the regulation and speed up the progress when it comes to building new homes. It's great for the government to come in here yet again and congratulate itself on investing in certain areas.

But I think when we will have a reason to congratulate this government will be the day that they come in here and announce the delivery of new houses. That is something that, from my perspective, is very far away.