QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Ms O'NEIL (Hotham—Minister for Housing, Minister for Homelessness and Minister for Cities) (14:08): I really appreciate this question from the member opposite. I think I've said to the parliament before that we should try to speak the truth in this chamber whenever we can. I'm really worried for the honourable member opposite who's asked me this question about the sheer number of mistruths that she was able to pack into one question.

Let's just go through them one by one. The first is that she has knowingly misquoted me in her question, but the second is that she has reached for Ray White. I want to read to the parliament what Ray White have said today: Ray White is not forecasting a 30 per cent rise in rents.

How incredibly embarrassing for the opposition, because this is actually the second day in a row that they have come into this parliament and misquoted a party saying this. I just want to remind the parliament that, when they came into the parliament yesterday, they accused the National Australia Bank of saying the same thing, and then the National Australia Bank clarified: This was not a forecast and it is important to note that we do not forecast rental yields.

Seriously, you just could not make this stuff up. I just want to go back to basics and actually talk to the parliament about what's really going on here, not the fictional world that's been created by those opposite. We've got really serious housing problems facing our country.

Unlike those opposite, our political party didn't discover the existence of Australian renters yesterday. We have decades of advocacy for this third of our population which is really bearing the brunt of what has gone wrong for housing in our country. Twenty-five years of Australian governments—and let's be honest—of every political colour have not done enough about this problem.

That is changing under our government. We have a massive and comprehensive policy that we are putting in place to support renters, to build more homes, to help with Commonwealth rent assistance, to improve rental standards and, perhaps most importantly of all, to give what most Australian renters tell us they want most of all, and that is a realistic pathway into homeownership.

Let's not pretend that this is about renters. I have been in this parliament for 12 years now. I have never for a single day heard those opposite come forward and actually advocate for renters.

What they are doing is using renters as a cover for a political campaign to defend a broken system of which renters are the main victims. On this side of the chamber, we've got real reforms to help renters around this country, and we'll keep advocating for them as we have for decades. Ms Coker interjecting— The SPEAKER: The member for Corangamite is warned.

We're not having random people just saying what they feel like. Honestly! The House will come to order immediately.