address to parliament - BILLS - Housing Australia Future Fund Bill 2023 - Consideration of Senate Message

I'd really like to say that Labor was in a policy vacuum, but unfortunately it is not. The trouble is: the policies being put forward by this government are bad, wrong-headed and short-sighted, and you only need to look at the amendments that have been brought into this House now, under the Housing Australia Future Fund Bill 2023. This is just going to be just another policy that Labor has brought forward that—along with the Murray-Darling Basin Plan which doesn't include Victoria; and along with the truckie tax, which is going to have our farmers paying for international competitors' biosecurity—in every regard, in every way, shape or form is just not properly thought through. The member for Bradfield was right when he asked where and when these situations with the housing are going to occur.

I spoke yesterday about the number of companies that have gone to the wall—gone bust. They're not small companies. Clough Group, Probuild, Dyldam Developments, Snowdon Developments, ABG Group and Condev are some of the larger construction companies that have folded. One of the more recent casualties is the Porter Davis Homes Group, rated the 13th-largest builder in Australia. That put 1,700 projects alone in jeopardy across multiple states.

I said yesterday and I reiterate today that Labor is proposing to put tens of thousands of new homes—originally it was a million—and new housing constructions into the market. They won't build one. But, if they do it, if they do pull this off somehow, some way, who is going to build these homes? We've got so many housing companies at the moment struggling from the financial hardships brought about by that side of politics. And, then, where are we going to source the materials? It's so, so difficult to find labour in metropolitan areas, let alone in regional areas like the member for Capricornia's electorate or mine. You just cannot find people to build houses. I know those opposite go on about fee-free TAFE. The situation is stark. You can't find sparkies. You can't find carpenters. You can't find plasterers. You can't find labourers to do the jobs that are expected when Labor say they are going to build tens of thousands of homes. It's a nonsense. It's absolute nonsense. It's utopia.

Ms Collins: On one hand you're saying we're not doing enough and on the other that we shouldn't do anything at all.

Mr McCORMACK: I hear the housing minister calling out. This is a dirty deal done not cheap with the Greens. The last time I saw a deal like this was when the Gillard government was in power, and we saw a deal struck with the Greens—Bob Brown was the leader then—and we all remember how that ended up. The situation is this: this is a deal done with the Greens to appease inner-city voters. It's not done to try to get people into homes. It's not done with social housing policy in mind. It's done because they're worried about what the Greens might be doing to their votes in inner-city electorates, and what a shame that is.

The UNSW put out a media release on 29 June this year talking about the number of construction companies collapsing—collapsing under the weight of not being able to find labour, collapsing under the weight of just not being able to make ends meet. Then we have a Victorian Labor government which wants to just shut down the timber industry. We've got a Victorian Labor government which doesn't want to have—

Ms Collins: How is this relevant to the amendment?

Mr McCORMACK: It is very relevant to the amendments because you build houses out of wood; you build houses out of timber. It's very relevant. I know you've cut Victoria out of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. Maybe cut Victoria out of the amendments to the housing plan too. Maybe Victoria doesn't exist anymore in the minds of those opposite. It very relevant because the fact is that you just won't have the materials and you certainly won't have the labour to build homes. Since this time last year, new home starts are down by 6.6 per cent. It once was the great Australian dream to own your own home—not anymore, because people are burdened down by the weight of the cost-of-living crisis brought about by Labor at the federal level and at every other level that they are in power.