YOU CAN’T MAKE IT UP! COALITION STEALS MY IDEA FOR A FOREIGN BUYER BAN BILL ON RESIDENTIAL HOUSING… AFTER VOTING AGAINST IT IN MARCH!

During the opposition’s Budget Reply speech this evening, Peter Dutton revealed a plan to tackle Australia’s housing crisis – which is identical to my Foreign Buyer Ban Bill which I introduced to Parliament earlier this year.

In March I introduced the Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Foreign Entities Bill 2024. It would bring the goal of home ownership into reach for thousands more Australians each year by banning foreign buyers from snapping up homes on our shores for two years.

Even though it would put downward pressure on house prices by cutting out competition from foreign property speculators, the National Party, the Liberal Party, and the Labor Party all voted against it. Only the Independents backed my Bill.

Fast forward to today, just two months later, when the Leader of the Opposition detailed a plan to solve the housing crisis by, you guessed it, restricting foreign buyers from buying residential property in Australia for two years.

You can’t make it up!

The downright plagiarism of my Bill once again lays bare the hypocrisy of major political parties — no wonder people are cynical about politics and politicians.

It’s bizarre that our nation’s opposition has neither the imagination nor the ticker to come up with game changing policies on their own, and instead be shamed into stealing my Bill which they recently opposed.

As they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so I should be tickled pink by the fact that the Coalition has plagiarised my Bill. However, the Coalition’s decision to steal my Bill after voting against it two months ago is, at its very heart, a sorry reflection of the uninspiring political leadership we see all too often these days.

ENDS

Media contact: Sinead Fogarty – 0417 852 386