STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator COLLINS (New South Wales—Deputy Opposition Whip in the Senate) (13:53): Labor has delivered a trifecta of failure on housing: fewer homes, higher rents and an absolute smashing of confidence in the market. Today, Ray White, Australia's biggest rental property manager, has said that Labor's budget handed down in May could lead to a 30 per cent spike in rental costs.

This national real estate agency, which manages more than a quarter of a million properties, did the analysis the government should have done. And it's not only Ray White with the damning forecasts. The National Australia Bank also said rents would have to increase as much as 30 per cent over the next two years because of Labor's shameless tax grab.

But Treasurer Jim Chalmers will no doubt hear all about it when he returns to his electorate on Friday, where rents for properties will rise by as much as 29 per cent—yet Treasurer Chalmers still backs in his absurd claim that rents will only increase by $2. Labor's economic grief by design gets worse. Real-time data from Westpac shows that, since Labor's devastating budget in May, mortgage applications have plunged by 20 per cent.

Buyers and investors have lost confidence in the housing market, and economists are warning that weaker mortgage demand will flow through to fewer transactions, less construction and even tighter housing supply. Labor should have known that. Their own Treasury forecasted that their tax grab would result in 35,000 fewer homes being built.

So there's your trifecta to create the perfect housing storm—higher rents, confidence smashed and fewer homes. But Labor sit there congratulating themselves because they wanted this—just like Keating and Hawke, when they tried to smash the economy into decline and instead smashed it into pieces before people even noticed. I say to the Australian people: listen to how they celebrate this.

We heard from Minister Wong this week. They want to redistribute the housing market. They want to redistribute your hard-earned assets.

There is nothing more socialist than that. The coalition will fight all the way to protect your assets, your aspiration and your future.