Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you to the wonderful member for Aston. She has asked three times as many questions as the member for Hume since the budget reply last month. The wasted decade in this country made our country more vulnerable to global economic uncertainty. That's true in the housing market. It's true as well in the labour market. But the Albanese government has recorded, as the PM said, the strongest jobs growth in its first year of any new government on record—more than 465,000 jobs. We've seen new analysis released today that shows that Australia is a world leader when it comes to job creation and workforce participation, well ahead of all the major advanced economies, with the highest participation rate and the strongest jobs growth since May 2022.

We know that what we need to do is to make sure that there are affordable homes close to where the jobs and opportunities are being created in our country. That's why building more homes has been absolutely central to our first two budgets and to our broader economic plan. I want to pay tribute to this Minister for Housing and this Prime Minister for the announcement that they made on the weekend: a $2 billion Social Housing Accelerator, which will build thousands of new homes in our country. It will mean more housing for more people in more parts of our nation, and it's part of our broad and ambitious housing agenda.

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