Zaneta Mascarenhas (Swan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am proud to be part of a government that is building, not blocking. We are backing renters; we're not flipping or flopping. We believe that renters shouldn't have to rent forever. That's why we're bringing housing deposits down to five per cent for the first time for first home buyers. Because I am into maths, as some of you may know—and, yes, my gender is female!—the median house price is $844,000. Five per cent of that is $42,000. The last time that you could buy a house with a $42,000 deposit was 2002. I believe that's when the member for Perth and I were at Curtin University. That goes back a very long time! If you were born in 2002, you could be at uni right now.

Not only are we doing that; we are also taking your HECS debt down. Down, down, everything's going down because—I'm going to say it—everyone is down with the Labor government. We are working hard to make a positive difference for the lives of people in Australia, whether they're young people wanting to buy their first house or they're uni students. That's because we care, and that was shown at the federal election. (Time expired)

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