Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Griffith for his question and look forward to his discussion in his party room with property developers in the Senate who are currently having proposals to carve through koala habitats. So that's fine.

Our position with regard to housing is that the key to addressing housing shortage is supply. That's our position. That is why we have the Housing Australia Future Fund, which was opposed by those opposite, all the way through, and was opposed by the crossbenchers for a considerable period of time as well.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

But, eventually, they voted for it and allowed it through.

But of course there is a bill before the Senate now, the help to buy bill, that is about putting people into homeownership, and that is a shared equity scheme—something that the Greens political party said, at the last election, was their policy. They actually went to an election saying it was their policy. But instead of that, of course, they are now opposing that move as well.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thanks very much, Mr Speaker. I think that said more about the member for Griffith than anyone in this chamber.

When it comes to the position, of course, the member for Griffith has said that there isn't a housing supply problem in this country. Just last month, he said there were:

… a million vacant properties on the night of the census … I just want to be very clear, we have enough homes for people to live in.

Apparently, there is no problem with housing supply in this country, according to the position of those opposite.

Then, of course, we had the mishmash thought-bubble of a policy, announced just a week ago, that didn't actually take anything positive forward. Of course, the Greens party's 2002 election platform says this: 'This is why the Greens will establish a shared-equity ownership scheme'—the one they're not voting for in the Senate. But they do have a policy, because they have said, or the member for Griffith has, that you shouldn't have to win a lottery to have a secure home, but then, on the same website, he says, under 'An example of the Greens vision for housing in Brisbane': '2000 homes available to any Brisbane resident and assigned by lottery'.

You can't take them seriously until they come up with a serious policy. You can't take them seriously unless they actually vote for what they said, at the last election, was their own policy. It's there in the Senate—the help to buy scheme. They should vote for it and get out of the way of good policy, which is what this housing minister and this government is proposing. (Time expired)