Mr CLARE (Blaxland) (15:17): Today in question time we asked a whole bunch of questions about the HomeBuilder program, but I think the one that revealed the most about what makes this government tick was the question asked by member for Macquarie about people who had had their homes burned down in the bushfires over Christmas. I think we would all agree that if there was anybody we should try to help in this place, it is people who had their homes burned down, who need to rebuild their homes and rebuild their lives, who saw a lifetime of work and effort incinerated in front of them. Under this HomeBuilder scheme, if you want to put another floor on your two-storey house and you can get the paperwork done in time then it is happy days—here is $25,000. But if you're one of those people who had your house burned down like the people in Bilpin, when the Prime Minister was on holidays in Hawaii, and you can't get the paperwork done by New Year's Eve, either because of trauma or problems with insurance companies or getting DAs through, then you might just miss out. What we asked in question time today of the Prime Minister was for a little bit of help for these people, a guarantee that you'll be there for them to help them to access this scheme and he couldn't provide that assurance. In the teeth of these bushfires, as people had their homes burned down and other people saw flames lapping at their doors, people felt like the Prime Minister had abandoned them. They felt like the government had abandoned them. I fear now, when they hear this news, that people who had their homes burned down who can't get guaranteed access to this scheme—if things beyond their control mean they can't get to it—will feel abandoned and ignored again. And it is not just these people who feel abandoned by this government; it is also the tradies and all the people who work in the home building industry. This is not a small industry. It employs about a million people and it's an industry that relies on a continuous pipeline of work, a pipeline that's drying up at the moment. Everybody in this place, surely, now knows that this is an industry that's headed off a cliff. The predictions before the coronavirus hit said that there would be 160,000 homes built this year, plenty of work for the industry. Now it is predicted that will drop to as low as 100,000. If that happens, it means lots of tradies would lose their jobs, lots of people who make the materials to build homes would lose their jobs. That is why we have been banging on about this for weeks. The Leader of the Opposition, the shadow Treasurer and I, and the whole team, have been saying that you have to take action to help save jobs in this industry. Last week, the government finally responded with this HomeBuilder scheme. But instead of building a guardrail at the top of the cliff, they've put a Tontine mattress at the bottom. Remember that I talked about 160,000 homes being built at the start of this year—at least that was the prediction from the Master Builders Association, which the minister mentioned in question time. Their prediction is that it will now drop to 100,000. They got Ernst & Young to do some analysis on what it would mean if you did different levels of stimulus. Based on what the government has put together here in HomeBuilder, it will provide a net extra 10,000 homes. So, it will help a bit. It will save some jobs and mean that some homes are built. But it is not going to save all of those tradies' jobs. It will mean that, for a lot of tradies who would otherwise be on the job building homes, all they're going to be building is a longer line at Centrelink. Just for comparison sake think about what we did when the global financial crisis hit, because that smashed the housing industry like it is being smashed now. We put together a scheme that provided grants to first home owners to build new homes. We also funded the construction of new social housing and the repair and maintenance—you might call it renovation—of other homes. Mr Albanese: 70,000! Mr CLARE: It was more than that, Labor Leader Anthony Albanese; it was 80,000—20,000 new homes and 80,000 homes renovated or repaired. It saved the jobs of lots of tradies and it helped stave off a recession. Compare that to what the government is doing here. You've got a crisis that is arguably bigger than it was during the GFC. The government's own documents say that the construction industry is being hit harder. More jobs are at risk. This is not about staving off a recession; we're already in a recession. What the government has put together in this HomeBuilder package is less than one-tenth of the rescue package we delivered for the industry during the GFC—so, bigger problem, smaller rescue package. That is why organisations like Credit Suisse have said, 'We doubt that the incentives delivered are large enough, nor the eligibility criteria wide enough to really move the needle.' Unlike anything we did, there is nothing in here to help people who don't even have a roof over their heads. I think the last few months have reminded us all just how important a safe and affordable home is. We've all been told to stay at home. It's what has kept us safe. It is our homes that have provided the shield to protect us from the virus. Australians experiencing homelessness, people sleeping rough in our parks and streets, have been provided a home. They have been put into empty hotel and motel rooms. But that's all temporary and is set to end. There are more Aussies today who are homeless than ever before. That's what the census said. That stereotype of the average homeless person being an old bloke on a park bench with a bottle of grog in a brown paper bag is just not true. What do you think the largest group of Australians who are homeless is? It's mums and kids, fleeing domestic violence, trying to get a home for the night and getting knocked back because there's no bed. Which group of Australians do you think is the fastest growing group of homeless Australians at the moment? It is older women, those in the 55 to 65 age group. That could be our mum, our aunties or our sisters. Believe it or not, tonight, one in 10 Australians sleeping rough in Sydney are probably going to be veterans—somebody who wears medals on Anzac Day and sleeps in the park at night. There's nothing in this package for them, which is why the OECD this week said that we should be doing something here. It could have been a win-win. We could have created homes for people who need them the most and created thousands and thousands of jobs for tradies. But we didn't get that. Instead, what we got was this: 'Renovation rescue for tradies' jobs'. That was on the front page of The Australian last Monday. I reckon there would have been a lot of people waking up and thinking, 'Well, I want to renovate the bathroom and the kitchen. Happy days, I'll be able to get some help here!' The Prime Minister encouraged that way of thinking, because he said, 'If you’ve been putting off that renovation, the extra 25 grand we're putting on the table now means it's time to get started.' It turns out that it's all rubbish. You see, if you want a new kitchen or a new dunny, it's easy; you just have to bulldoze the whole house. You've got to look at the detail. To qualify for this scheme, you've got to spend more than 150,000 bucks on the reno—$150,000 to $750,000 on a renovation—and you've got to earn less than $125,000 a year. I don't know about you, Mr Deputy Speaker Llew O'Brien, but I don't know a lot of people who have a lazy 150 grand laying around to lob into a renovation. I asked the Treasurer about this on Tuesday. I asked, 'How many people are going to be winners out of this renovation rescue?' The answer was 7,000. That's it—7,000 people. It's more 'Scotty Sham' than Scotty Cam, and that's why it has been almost universally bagged across the media. I gave the minister some examples in question time today, from Domain. But it doesn't end there. I quote from a Daily Telegrapharticle titled 'Battler's hammer reno cash': Prime Minister Scott Morrison's $688 million HomeBuilder plan has been slammed as a "kick in the guts" to Aussie battlers. From The Weekend Australian: 'HomeBuilder doesn't go far enough for tradies'. From The Courier-Mail: 'Locals shun reno scheme'. Here's another one from The Courier-Mail: 'Concerns HomeBuilder scheme won't help the construction industry'. This is one from news.com.au: 'Scott Morrison's HomeBuilder scheme declared a "dud" that will make the well-off richer and fail to save construction jobs'. This has gone off quicker than a seafood milkshake. Australians aren't stupid; they can see through the spin and see through slogan after slogan after slogan. They've worked it out; they've realised there's not much in this for them. I can't think of a better example where a government has developed this cynical marketing ploy to try to create the impression that they're doing something to help people instead of actually doing something to help. This renovation rescue is only going to help a lucky few. Everyone else is left behind. The people who need a roof over their head—left behind. The mums and kids fleeing domestic violence—left behind. Thousands and thousands of tradies who need extra work—left behind. Worst of all, thousands of people who had their homes burned down could potentially miss out on the scheme. We couldn't get that guarantee from the Prime Minister today. That's why I say this is 'HomeBlunder'. The government has stuffed this up. We're in a recession. Thousands of jobs are at risk, and this government needs to take action to protect these jobs. (Time expired)