Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This country hasn't built enough houses for 40 years. This has meant prices have gone up, both for purchase and to rent. This Labor government has got cracking on a number of strategies to address this. We're making it better to rent by strengthening renters rights, increasing rental properties through build-to-rent, with 80,000 more homes, and providing a 45 per cent increase to Commonwealth rent assistance, helping one million households. We're building more homes through the Housing Australia Future Fund, training more tradies, providing more infrastructure and reducing red tape. We're also making it easier to buy through shared equity with Help to Buy and a 20 per cent cut to student debt, which we are excluding from mortgage assessments. And now we're expanding the five per cent deposit scheme. So far 175,000 Australians have already bought their first home on this scheme. This means first home buyers can get into the market faster and avoid having to pay mortgage insurance. Mortgage insurance is very rarely called on and costs the average mortgagee $23,000 a year, money they could be putting into their home equity. Alongside increasing affordable housing supply, the five per cent deposit scheme means housing will be more affordable for first home buyers, many of whom are in the younger age groups. The Liberal and National parties left a housing disaster for our next generation and have tried to block our housing strategies at every step. This government is working hard to make housing affordable for all Australians.

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