 The government is trying to pull the wall over your eyes and crush your hope that they're capable of doing anything real or substantial to tackle the housing crisis. I mean, what do we make of a parliament? What do we make of a parliament and a government in 2024 where millions of people are struggling to pay their rent, struggling to pay their mortgages, giving up on ever being able to buy a home? And the one piece of housing legislation that the government brings to this parliament is going to screw over 99.8% of renters. They're going to set up a sick lottery, a sick lottery. And if you're a renter watching at home right now and you're wondering, oh, I'd love to be able to buy a home. Well, guess what? The government's only solution this year is one where you spin a wheel and 99.8% of the time you lose. And really, the goal of this government—the goal of this government is to get up and say, oh, they care about people suffering at the moment. They care about people struggling to pay their rent. When 75% of this government—of members of this government—own investment properties. I mean, own investment properties. It's quite incredible, despite the fact that they also have supporting massive tax handouts for property investors that are denying millions of renters the chance ever to buy a home. Now, one of the remarkable things we heard from the housing minister says repeatedly, our ambitious housing reform agenda is working across the board. Working across the board, tell that to the renters right now who are one rent increase away from eviction. Rents, by the way, are increasing almost double the rate of wages. Tell that to the pensioner who emailed their office and said, I just copped $250 a week rent increases every six months, and now I'm only on $100 a week. That's what I'm trying to survive on now after rent. Tell that to them that the housing agenda is working across the board. Again, the housing minister says our ambitious housing reform agenda is working across the board. Tell that to the single mum I doorknocked over the weekend who has copped another massive rent increase. She said to me, well, I'm skipping meals at the moment because I can't afford the rent and I really want to be able to afford my baby's nappy rash cream. This is a wealthy country. This is such a wealthy country. What's so clear is the government, what they want to do, is crush people's expectations that they're capable of doing anything other than tinkering around the edges. But I tell you what they are capable of doing. They are capable of dishing out $39 billion a year in tax handouts for property investors. They are capable of giving tax handouts to property developers to build to rent. I'll tell you about the latest build to rent project that the government really supports down in Melbourne, where one third of the tenants were evicted by that private property developer, and then the apartments were re-advertised with jacked up rents. This is also a government, by the way, who appointed at the head of their Supply and Affordability Council, the body that is meant to advise the government on dealing with the housing crisis. Can anyone take a guess who they appointed at the head of that? The outgoing CEO of Mervac, one of the largest property developers in this country. By the way, let's talk about Mervac for a moment. They also did a build to rent project. They advertised it in Sydney, and they advertised rents that were 20% above market rent. The government's solution to the housing crisis—I tell you who it is being applauded by—is the property council, the head of the property developers in Australia. They are really happy with the government's response. The banks are really happy with the government's response. I suppose when the minister says, oh, this ambitious housing reform agenda is working across the board, well, I bet really who it's working for right now is the Commonwealth Bank, who just reported a wreck on $10 billion profit. It is working for property developers who get extra tax handouts for the government. It is working for the 75% of the Labor members over there who are property investors who benefit from the massive tax handouts that property investors get that are driving up house prices in this country and screwing over millions of people. Now, let's be very clear. We just had a Labor member in this place talk about, oh, well, in post-World War II there was a really big improvement in housing affordability. Well, there were three things happening then that we could do right now that this government could do right now. They have the power to do it, and if they tell you they don't, they are lying to you. Here's one—cap and freeze rent increases. Right now, rents are increasing close to double the rate of wages. The only way to stop that right now and give people relief is to put a cap and a freeze on rent increases. Secondly, we could phase out the massive tax handouts for property investors, which right now this is what it means, these tax handouts. You go to an auction. You've been saving for years. You've been making sacrifices. You've been giving up meals just so you can save up for enough to deposit. You go to that auction and then you have a property investor with thousands of dollars of tax handouts in their pocket from this Labor government, and they can bid up the price of the house and you get screwed. I mean, I speak to wealthy parents in my electorate who say my kid will never be able to buy a home, never be able to buy a home. Finally, what they could do is if they phased out those tax handouts for property investors, they could spend billions of dollars building public housing. Do you know how many public homes this country could build if we phased out those massive tax handouts? Half a million homes. Half a million homes. That would come close to ending the shortfall of public housing in this country. Think about the millions of lives that we could change right now in this place if this government had the guts to stand up to the banks, to the property developers, and the massive property investors right now who are the main beneficiaries of this broken housing system. Authorised by M Chandler Mather, Australian Greens, Brisbane.