Ms O'NEIL (Hotham—Minister for Housing and Minister for Homelessness) (15:01): I'd like to thank the member for Lingiari for her question. She is a hugely respected member of our caucus and a great advocate for Territorians. We came to government in the middle of a housing crisis, which has been a generation in the making, to find a Commonwealth which had completely vacated housing throughout a wasted decade. Remember, Mr Speaker, that for most of the time the coalition were in office they were so tapped out of housing they didn't even have a housing minister. From those ashes, the Albanese government has constructed the boldest and most ambitious housing agenda that an Australian government has had for a generation, and it's not surprising that we've done that because the Prime Minister, the Treasurer and the former housing minister, Minister Collins, have an acute understanding of the absolutely transformative impact that safe and affordable housing has for all of our citizens. It has been a really big week for housing. Measures that will pass this parliament this week will build more houses, better protect Australia's renters and give more Australians the opportunity to own their own home. These initiatives have passed the parliament because they have received widespread support across the chamber. And there is some serious housing expertise around this chamber, and I want to acknowledge some of the crossbench, in particular, who have worked closely with us. We have massive housing expertise amongst the people behind me, but I want to also acknowledge Senators David Pocock and Lambie in the other place and the members for Wentworth, Kooyong, Curtin, Indi and North Sydney, amongst others. I want the public to understand that we have been elected at a time when crossbenchers have also come into this parliament and they have done the hard yakka. They've worked with experts, they've worked with stakeholders and they've engaged with our government. As a consequence, we are making better laws because of their contribution. Earlier today I announced some really important amendments that our government will make to the Build to Rent scheme, which will make sure that it provides better protection for Australian renters. It will build 80,000 much-needed rental homes for our country and it will bring more affordable housing online more quickly. These reforms are really broadly backed. It was a great bill coming into the parliament; it's going to be an even better bill coming out because of the hard work and due diligence done by people across this chamber. I want to compare that attitude to the reckless negativity that we see from those opposite. I spend a lot of time with crossbenchers, engaging with them deeply on housing policy. The shadow minister over here won't even attend a briefing about the housing bills that we have before this parliament. We know that those opposite want to cut $19 billion from our housing program. They want to abolish Help to Buy. They want to stand in the path of childcare workers and disability workers getting home ownership. There's a really clear choice at this election on housing between those opposite and their endless no, no, no and us, a government of progress that will build, build, build.