QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator AYRES (New South Wales—Minister for Industry and Innovation and Minister for Science) (14:19): Thank you to Senator Pocock for that question. I think it is absolutely the case that many Australians in rental accommodation are experiencing rental prices that are too high by historical standards. For young Australian's trying to find a place in the rental market, that is harder for them than it should be.

That's also the case for first home buyers as well. I think that's a reasonable proposition to put into a question, but it is not a reasonable proposition to say that this government has done nothing about those questions. We've taken national leadership on renters' rights.

We've worked with the states and territories to harmonise and strengthen rights and protections through a better deal for renters, agreed at National Cabinet level. That includes having a nationally consistent policy on when it's unreasonable to evict a renter from their home, banning rent bidding, phasing in minimum quality standards for rental properties and moving towards a national standard of no more than one rent increase per year.

Some key reforms, such as banning soliciting rent bidding and strengthening protections for tenants—where is Senator Babet?—experiencing family or domestic violence are now in places across all states and territories. We have delivered those across the states. It is delivering real change across the real estate sector.

It is making real progress. We've delivered greater levels of financial assistance through the first back-to-back increases in Commonwealth rent assistance in 30 years, lifting it by over 50 per cent since we came to government. Tax incentives are in place to encourage investment in build to rent.

The list of effort from this government is bigger than any previous government in our history. We've got more work to do, and fundamentally what it is about is building more homes. (Time expired)