HomeBuilder Program

Mr COWDREY (Colton) (14:33): My question is to the Treasurer. Was the extension to the HomeBuilder grant completion deadline fundamentally inequitable and unfair? If not, will he correct the record from 8 March? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr COWDREY: On 8 March this year, the Treasurer said:

The reason that it is not being reopened or I am not seeking to reopen the scheme for one group of people who find themselves in this very regrettable situation is because it would be fundamentally inequitable for all of those other people who found themselves in similar situations and missed out on the scheme as well.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer) (14:34): I am pleased to report that those concerns that I did have about it being equitable have been addressed, and the reason why is because all the applicants now—

Mr Cowdrey: That's all anyone was ever asking for.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Treasurer has the call.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: There are tissues in here. I am just trying to find them for the member for Colton.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: The issue that he raised is that he wanted a time frame extension for those people who were buying off-the-plan apartments.

The Hon. S.S. Marshall interjecting:

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: He's the member for Colton. A bit of 2010 for you, yelling out from the backbench.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: The prince is back in form.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Treasurer will not respond to interjections.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: I know how concerned he is, the member for Dunstan. His brow is furrowed

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr Cowdrey interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Colton is called to order.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: The member for Colton came into this place making representations—

Mr Cowdrey interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —on behalf of those people who were in a sense of strife from investing in off-the-plan apartments and renovations. The point I made is, what about all those other people who had applied for the grant who were missing out because of the same pressures in the building industry? So when the federal housing minister wrote out to treasurers saying that she was contemplating extending it for those people, who the member for Colton had been advocating for, what did we do? We pointed out the inequity of the issue, the inequity of the situation that would arise. So what has the federal government done now?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: What has the federal government done now? They have extended it to all applicants.

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Exactly what the member for Colton stubbornly refused to advocate for. Don't just take my word for it—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —because there are many members across there who actually raised these issues with me, but do you know who the one member of parliament is who still stubbornly has not written to me on this issue? The member for Colton. His other colleagues in here have done the right thing by their constituents, but not the member for Colton—not the member for Colton. It is just extraordinary. You don't have to take my word for it—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is warned.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —you can listen to how the media has reported the performance on this. You can listen to how the media has reported this performance, and I quote: 'I sent Cowdrey the same text message I—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —sent Mullighan. Can you talk to me about—

The SPEAKER: Order! Treasurer, there is a point of order which I will—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for West Torrens, I am required to hear the point of order under 134(2), which I will.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Standing order 98: we have had a minute of the Treasurer attacking a member of parliament rather than answering the question.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! There has also been substantial or, rather, substantive interjections. There is some force in the point of order. I will bring the Treasurer to the question.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. As I said, the media reports it as this:

I sent Cowdrey the same text I sent Mullighan and he said it's a matter for the party. I can't help but think this is why the Liberals are going to be in opposition for a very long time.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: 'It's not just Matt Cowdrey, it's pretty much the whole of the Liberal shadow front bench.'

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, Treasurer! The member for Morialta under 134.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Standing order 98, and the Treasurer is also defying your earlier advice.

The SPEAKER: There is some force in the point of order. It is well known in the house that a degree of compare and contrast and, in fact, some context is permissible at the outset, and it may be that we are coming to the end of the context.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: I stand by exactly what I said to the parliament beforehand: that advocating for one small group of applicants to the exclusion of others who had been impacted by exactly the same delays in the building industry would be fundamentally inequitable. There is one person in this place who doesn't accept that argument. I am grateful that the federal Minister for Housing has accepted that argument, and it has now been extended to all of them because I did the work that the member for Colton refused to do: I actually put pen to paper and corresponded with them and got the right outcome—something that the member for Colton, persistently to this day, refuses to do.