CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS
Mr BUCHHOLZ (Wright) (09:51): Yesterday was Vietnam Veterans' Day, commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan. In the middle of my electorate I have the Canungra Land Warfare Centre, and my electorate also goes up to the RAAF Base Amberley, so veterans are interwoven into the fabric of my community. From Scenic Rim to Logan to Lockyer Valley to the Gold Coast, veterans have put their lives on the line for this country.
The very least their country can do is look after them when they come home, yet this Labor government has imposed an arbitrary cap on allied health care for veterans and their families. Veterans health care should be based on needs not on a bureaucratic cap. Worse still, the Minister for Veterans' Affairs initially refused to meet with the veterans who came to Canberra who wanted to be heard.
It took pressure from the opposition in question time to get him to the table to meet with those brave men and women. If the Australian minister won't listen to veterans, who exactly is he listening to? Australians are entitled to ask: if there's a cap on health care for our veterans, why is there no cap on the Minister for Climate Change and Energy's international travel budget?
Labor can find money for ministers to fly around the world for climate conferences but puts limits on the care for those men and women who served our country. That tells you everything about the government's priorities. The cap is simply wrong.
It's hurting veterans and their families. We'll scrap the cap, listen to our veterans and give them the care that they need and that they've earned. When it comes to housing, Labor has delivered a housing trifecta of failure: fewer homes, higher rent and confidence absolutely smashed.
The warnings are becoming a reality. Ray White real estate says Labor's new property taxes could force some investors to raise rents by approximately 30 per cent to cover their losses. NAB has issued similar warnings.
Having spoken to local real estate agents in my electorate in suburbs like Yarrabilba and Flagstone in Logan and Plainland and Gatton in the Lockyer Valley, I know the warnings are becoming all too real. Locals on the Gold Coast hinterland and our regional centres, like Beaudesert and Boonah, are telling me that they're under stress from this government. Labor promised to make housing more affordable.
Instead, they're making it more expensive to rent, harder to buy and less attractive to build. Since Labor's May budget, Westpac's mortgage applications have reportedly plunged more than 20 per cent. You cannot tax your way out of a government crisis.
You cannot punish investors and expect more homes. Labor's housing policy is simply to tax more, to build less and to make renters pay the price.