STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Mr BIRRELL (Nicholls) (13:48): There are a few people around this place who really like a punt. Some go for the win or lose. Some try to get a trifecta.

There's nothing more exciting than seeing the three horses you chose come first, second and third in a race, but Labor has delivered a trifecta that no-one should be proud of and that is very bad for Australia. The trifecta is (1) fewer homes, (2) higher rents and (3), but very close behind, confidence in the housing market has been smashed. There are no winners here, no winners in our country, because Labor have lost control of housing, and they are missing their annual housing target by more than 70,000 homes.

Builders are going broke, and rents are soaring—up nearly 25 per cent under Labor. I don't know if they thought that they knew what they were doing in the budget, but, as I described the Prime Minister last term, he is the prime minister of unintended consequences, and those consequences are not good for the Australian people. There is a better way.

Our plan to fix the economy and protect our way of life—it will deliver more because it will cap migration and link it with housing completions, and we will invest $5 billion in housing infrastructure, and this will unlock up to 400,000 homes, cutting unnecessary red tape to reduce the cost of a new home, and we will axe Labor's toxic taxes.