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Senator KOVACIC (New South Wales) (12:51): I think it's really important that we talk again about why this discussion is one that needs our attention. The government have spoken often about their home deposit guarantee scheme and how it opened the door for young Australians to buy homes. At the time when that occurred, we alerted the government to concerns around the inflationary impacts of opening that up to absolutely everybody.

The government insisted that wasn't going to happen, and yet it did. In the six months to December of last year, prices went up some six per cent, so there was an inflationary impact. Any reasonable person would probably surmise that would occur.

The government insisted it wasn't going to occur, yet it did, and I think that points to their understanding of how our economy operates and also reflects somewhat on their ability to manage that economy and why Australians are struggling in the way that they are. In addition to that, at the budget this year, the government then decided to make a raft of sweeping changes to our tax system in association with the Australian Greens that have created significant impacts to many Australians who are trying to save to buy a home and to those that already own property and particularly to those young Australians who purchased a dwelling under that five per cent guarantee scheme.

Those opposite would suggest that it's scaremongering from those on this side of the chamber. It's not scaremongering; they are facts. They are facts that are also articulated by the Reserve Bank.

I want to read to you something from the AFR that came out some 10 days ago. It wrote: Releasing its six-monthly health check of the Australian financial system on Thursday, the RBA found households overall had enough savings and cash-flow buffers to manage the stress caused by rising interest rates and high inflation, but financial distress was building among low-income borrowers.

What's the context of that? The Reserve Bank of Australia has warned that first home buyers who used the Albanese government's 5 per cent deposit scheme face a greater risk of falling into negative equity as property prices head towards their biggest correction in four decades, fuelled by four interest rate rises this year— courtesy of the Albanese Labor government and 16 interest rate rises in total courtesy of the Albanese Labor government.

What those on the other side of the chamber, in association with the Australian Greens, wanted to call intergenerational equity, the RBA is now saying, has resulted in first home buyers most at risk of negative equity, and 'financial distress was building among low-income borrowers'. How's that for an own goal that young Australians pay for, that Australians who have scrimped and scraped for years to enter the housing market have to pay for?

It's unbelievable, but it is real. It's perhaps a living nightmare for those people that have been impacted by it. We've spoken about it in this chamber before and we'll do it again now.

This government has delivered a trifecta of failure on housing. We have fewer homes, we have higher rents and confidence in the housing market has been shattered. All of those things are as a result of the actions of this government.

And now we have 15 per cent fewer construction apprentices as a result of the actions of this government, at a time when we need to build more houses. What else is going to happen here apart from the fact that they have crushed Australians with the cost-of-living crisis, that they have crushed small business with a cost-of-doing-business crisis, that in particular they have crushed the construction sector when we need more homes?

How much worse can it get? A lot, sadly, which is why we need to get rid of this government as quickly as possible. At the current rate, Australia is completing just 173,000 homes a year against a 240,000 requirement under this government's own target.

At the current rate, this government will fall about 335,000 houses short of the 1.2 million target that they've set for themselves. It's just not good enough. Question agreed to.