QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator AYRES (New South Wales—Minister for Industry and Innovation and Minister for Science) (14:27): You won't see any patting ourselves on the back coming from us. You won't see a 'we did it' post coming from us. Let me let me just point to one example reported in the Australian Financial Review, and it's a pity Senator McKenzie's not here because it's in the suburb of Elwood in the electorate of Macnamara—oh, there you are!

The PRESIDENT: Senator Ayres, I remind you it is not appropriate to refer to whether senators are in the chamber. Senator AYRES: It was only that this is in her suburb. Melbourne's Jessye Young, a 32-year-old operations manager bought a two-bedroom unit in Elwood in inner city Melbourne.

She said: I went through a break-up, I was living by myself in a rental and I was at a point where I got a promotion at work and I thought, 'OK, it's time to be serious about my future— Senator Barbara Pocock: A point of order, President. An anecdote does not address the structural crisis that my question asks the minister to respond to. The PRESIDENT: Senator Pocock, I'll remind you again that it's not appropriate to make statements.

You called the point of order. The minister is being relevant. I will continue to listen closely, and, if not, I will draw him to your question.

Senator AYRES: She said: OK, it's time to be serious about my future, and I'm not going to let being single stop me from doing that. … … … Young credits the federal government's expanded first home buyer scheme … as allowing her to buy, as she could use a 6 per cent deposit without having to pay lenders mortgage insurance. They are real people, real Australians.

There are more than a quarter of a million of them, and you should look them in the face while you're running that— (Time expired)