STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS
Parliamentary Friends of Cricket
Housing
Aged Care
Mr BATT (Hinkler—Deputy Nationals Whip) (13:39): Last night, here in Parliament House, the Parliamentary Friends of Cricket came together to celebrate the great game of cricket, our recent successes and the tantalising summer ahead. It was great to catch up with Scotty Boland and Ellyse Perry, two of the finest bowlers in the game and wonderful role models. Even for Scotty or Ellyse a hat-trick is rare, but not for this Labor government. No, they’ve got their own trifecta, and the victims are everyday Australians. It’s a rapid-fire and toxic spell in what can only be described as a failure on housing. First dismissal: fewer houses. Second: higher rents—a golden duck. And third: confidence in the housing market smashed. Howzat!
To top it off for the elderly in Hinkler who are searching for an aged-care bed and in the waiting line—and it’s a long one—Labor is simply letting aged care go through to the keeper. They’ve declared. They’ve given up on a fair go for older Australians and for all those wanting to get ahead. Australia has only completed 173,000 homes a year against roughly 240,000 needed to meet their own target. Builders are going broke at an average of around 60 businesses every week, and rents are soaring. The median rent in regional electorates like Hinkler is around $600 per week. We need less migration and more homes. We need a chance for Aussies to have a crack at a decent innings.