Senator
Maria Kovacic

Australia is experiencing its lowest birthrate since 1935, a troubling trend highlighted by recent data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The total fertility rate has plummeted to just 1.5 births per woman, with NSW and Queensland seeing declines of some 6 per cent.

The Coalition’s new housing plan, which invests $5bn in critical infrastructure to build over 500,000 new homes, marks a significant turning point for young people and families in Western Sydney.

ASIC reported 11,053 businesses failing in the first half of the 2024/2025 financial year alone – the highest six-month total on record. Construction accounts for more than a quarter of all business failures.

Small businesses are literally the backbone of our economy, accounting for 97.2% of all businesses, which is why each of us will probably interact with one on a daily basis.

“We have to ensure that we haven’t not only shut the gate, but locked it and bolted it and then welded it shut,” Senator Kovacic said the challenge with the serviceability test was that APRA was always much quicker to raise it than it was to reduce it.

In the 2024 Western Sydney Youth survey, 84 per cent of respondents said they have little confidence they will ever own their own home. Labor promises more houses, including through the built-to-rent scam – a non-solution that shifts the focus away from home ownership and locks people to tenancy treadmills for life.