PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS

Mr CALDWELL (Fadden—Opposition Chief Whip) (11:02): I move: That this House: (1) condemns the Government's housing failures, which under this Government has seen the housing shortfall increase to 400,000 persons, roughly the population of Canberra; (2) highlights that home building has fallen to around 170,000 homes a year under the Government, down from around 200,000 homes under the previous Government; (3) recognises the Opposition's plan to: (a) restore the Australian dream of home ownership by freeing up housing stock and beginning to fix the housing shortage; and (b) cut back the 2,000 page National Construction Code, giving Australians the ability to build cheaper safe, secure, and good homes; (4) acknowledges the Opposition's commitment to overhaul our skilled migration intake so that Australia brings in people with the skills that businesses desperately need; (5) further recognises the Opposition's plan to establish a $5 billion Housing Infrastructure Fund to unlock up to 400,000 new homes, including in regional Australia; and (6) calls on the Government to adopt practical policies that make it cheaper, easier and faster to build new homes.

Sadly, the great Australian dream has turned into a nightmare under this Labor government. Across Australia, people are standing around barbecues, simply asking, 'How are our kids going to get into a home?' It's the question that mums and dads are asking. It's the question that young Australians are asking.

And, after four years of this Labor government, it's becoming harder and harder to answer. The government has delivered a trifecta of failure on housing: fewer homes, higher rents and confidence in the market smashed. Home values have fallen month after month.

First home buyer mortgage pre-approvals have fallen, and rents remain higher. Construction costs are higher. Labor's track record so far is that renters are struggling because rents have gone up 22 per cent.

Australians deserve to ask a pretty basic question after all of the billions of dollars and all of the announcements: where are the homes? Labor had what they called an 'ambitious' but I would say 'delusional' target of 1.2 million homes over five years. As I've said in this place before, that requires 60,000 homes to be delivered every quarter for five years.

Every quarter, this carrot that they're holding out is further and further away from Australians. This government will say that the housing crisis has been 40 years in the making when really it's just four—four years of fewer homes, four years of higher rents, four years of higher construction costs and four years of Australians watching homeownership move further and further out of reach.

It's time for this Labor government to front up to Australians and be honest about how they're tracking, because they're failing each and every Australian. At the centre of this failure is the Minister for Housing. I've said it before in this place, and I'll say it again today—the minister was hopeless in Home Affairs in the last term of government, and now she is hopeless with homes.

This week, Australians received a new contribution to the housing debate from the Minister for Communications and the Minister for Sports, Anika Wells—Ooshies. Are you serious? Apparently, Australians who cannot afford a home need a cabinet minister to explain supply and demand to them with children's supermarket toys, Minister Wells told Australians that both the Ooshie market and the Australian housing market are dictated by supply and demand.

Australians understand supply and demand because they understand it every time there's a rent renewal. They understand it every time a first home buyer misses out on another property. And parents understand it when their adult children tell them they cannot afford to live anywhere near the community that they grew up in.

Australians don't need to be patronised with Ooshies; they need homes. If anyone wants to see the difference between a Labor housing announcement and actual delivery, look at what happened in Victoria last week. Minister O'Neil was there.

So was the special envoy for housing, Josh Burns. There was an announcement of $144 million for 237 crisis and transitional homes. It is a great initiative on paper because these are homes for vulnerable Australians—women and children escaping family and domestic violence experiencing or risking homelessness, for example.

A journalist asked the big question, possibly the most basic question: 'How long will it take to build them?' What did the housing minister say? 'Who wants to take that? Is it Nick or Josh?' She stepped away from answering it. The Victorian housing minister gave Australians the answer: by 2029.

It was reconfirmed by the special envoy, Josh Burns. That's extraordinary. A housing crisis announced in 2026, with delivery in three years time. 'Cynical Cameron' would think that this might have had something to do with the Victorian state election coming up, but that is not helping the women who are escaping family and domestic violence.

The coalition believes in something fundamentally different—we must restore homeownership as the centrepiece of the Australian dream: We must strive, as a nation, to increase homeownership. There is no better way to illustrate the collective ambition of our nation to have individual freedom and responsibility than to have people own their own home. Give as many people as possible the opportunity to have a stake in our nation.

That was from my maiden speech, on 4 September 2023, and I still believe it today. The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Payne ): Is there a seconder for the motion? Mr Small: I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.