Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak not just on this but for an entire generation of Australians who have been locked out of the housing market because of the policies, or, should I say, the lack of policies of previous governments. This generation of young Australians have been locked out not because they lacked ambition but because the system itself has put homeownership increasingly out of their reach. For too long, young people in this country have felt let down by not having any opportunity to purchase their own home.

We, on this side of the House, are very cognisant of the challenges they've faced. That's why, since we came to government, we have been making the ability and the opportunity for young people to get into the housing market a priority of this government. That's why, in backing up that cognisance of understanding the challenge, we have made record investments in housing in this country. We've actually backed it up with record investments. From 1 October this year, even more young Australians will be able to realise their dream of homeownership. And that's thanks to this government, the Albanese government, bringing forward our Home Guarantee Scheme to allow first home buyers to buy a home with just a five per cent deposit. You heard it right; it's just a five per cent deposit. We're bringing down all first home deposits from 20 per cent to five per cent this year, from 1 October, because affordable and secure housing should be a human right in this country. It's about dignity.

I know it is valid as well that housing in Australia has also been a vehicle for investment and so on, and that's fine. But having a roof over your head, having your own home, is really about basic human dignity. It is the foundation, literally the physical foundation, to be able to then fulfil your potential in the workforce and through the social, economic and the educational opportunities that flow from that foundation. But first and foremost—it's Maslow, if you're familiar with that, Deputy Speaker Chesters—it's to get that shelter in place. It is about human dignity. I think that housing needs to be seen in this frame—the importance of it for every single Australian and their future ability to fulfil their potential.

In the first year alone, first home buyers who will be using this scheme that we are debating here are expected to avoid around $1.5 billion in potential mortgage insurance costs. That's a massive amount that will be avoided. And we're not going to stop there. We won't stop there, despite whatever arguments are made by the other side for political pointscoring, because we'll continue the family home guarantee that helps single parents to buy a home with a two per cent deposit—not two per cent but five per cent. That is amazing.

Since coming to office in 2022, the Labor government has helped over 180,000 first home buyers get a home of their own with a lower deposit. That's 180,000 families. That's a lot of people that have been given the opportunity to build that foundation and to have that foundation to fulfil their potential in life. On average, there have been more than 6,000 more first-home-buyer loans a year under Labor compared to under the coalition's period in office. That's 6,000 more than under the other mob.

Now, the median home price in Australia today is $844,000, and five per cent of that is around $42,200. The last time $42,200 covered the 20 per cent deposit for a median home was in 2002, which shows the generational scale of this change. This is in stark contrast to the housing policies—if I can call them that—brought to this year's election campaign by the coalition. Their solution to the housing crisis? Let first home buyers access up to $50,000 of their own super to buy a home. I'm not sure what they were thinking—what kind of fantasy this was. Not only was this policy completely irresponsible but no-one across from us had the foresight to think how this would inadvertently bring up housing prices.

So, unlike that horrid election commitment that was made by the coalition, we are putting forward real, tangible relief for millions of Australians in this country in this bill, this scheme and all the others that I've spoken about. We were re-elected with a clear mandate to bring down the deposit hurdle for first home buyers, and we are delivering on that.

In my electorate of Wills, 38 per cent of my constituents are renters. The expanded scheme means a first home buyer in Wills could purchase a $600,000 home with only a $30,000 deposit. They could save up to six years off the time it takes to save for a deposit, save about $25,000 in mortgage insurance—that is a very important element—and pay up to around $126,000 towards their own loan instead of paying rent. That'll make a difference to the future of all of those people. Since the inception of our Home Guarantee Scheme, 1,010 people in Wills, in my electorate, have accessed it.

As I said, affordable housing is critical as the foundation for people wanting to fulfil their potential. I grew up in inner-city Melbourne in public housing—I'm a houso—in the seventies and eighties. We grew up in a housing commission, as it's called in Victoria. I share that with the Prime Minister, who, if you don't know, also grew up in social housing.

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