STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Mr PIKE (Bowman) (13:51): There is nothing more important to the financial security of an Australian household than what is almost universally their largest asset: their family home. It is the nest egg people spend decades investing into. It is the security that they rely on in retirement.

We all remember the Prime Minister promising over 50 times that he wouldn't be touching negative gearing and he wouldn't be touching CGT. We all remember that he said his word was his bond. Well, he's broken that promise, and Australians are now paying the price for it in the value of their homes.

Labor have delivered a trifecta of failure when it comes to housing: there are fewer homes and higher rents, and they've absolutely smashed confidence in the market. Yesterday in question time we saw the government trying to pretend this was just business as usual and that it is just the market softening. The Prime Minister said this impact was precisely what it was aiming at doing.

Well, what about the impact on John and Claire from Cleveland, who bought a house earlier this year and are now facing the prospect of it sitting there in negative equity, or Shirley from Victoria Point, who's trying to sell her home before Christmas, trying to downsize, and is seeing the value of her asset evaporate, or the thousands of renters in my city, who are going to face higher rents as a consequence of these policies?

These are the Australians whose financial security is being damaged by the reckless policies of this Labor government.