STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Mr HAMILTON (Groom) (13:48): Whenever I go doorknocking around Toowoomba, I ask people the same thing. I ask them what they would change about Australia. So often the answer is the same—the economy and housing.

I hear the economy and housing over and over again. That's what I hear. In Middle Ridge I met a young teacher.

He's married. He's got a young child. They're starting out in life, doing all the things that we ask young Australians to do.

But his rent has almost doubled. He's renting a house he could never afford to buy, and with rent, groceries, electricity and the cost of raising a child, there is no way he can save money for a deposit. He can't see how he will ever own his own home in Australia.

I hear versions of that same story over and over again everywhere I go. Young Australians are looking at their parents and their grandparents and they see generations who could work hard, save, buy a home and build a pathway to prosperity and security. That pathway has been blocked by this Labor government.

That pathway has been taken away from young Australians who wanted to have that Australian dream that we all had, who wanted to imagine themselves working hard, getting a good job, being able to build a future for their kids and have a place that they can call home. This budget has absolutely smashed that dream. It's taken it away from them.

It's hurt Australians. It's hurt our future. It's taken confidence away from the market, and it's driving rents up, week after week.

That Australian dream is disappearing, and that's happening on Labor's watch.