Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

My community in Melbourne's west are hard-working, aspirational Australians who want a good life for themselves, their children and their grandchildren. They're tradies, small business owners, shift workers. They're young people who dream of security and independence. They're parents who want their children to grow with stability and opportunity and for their children to be afforded the same opportunities that were afforded to them. People in my community are doing everything right. They work hard, they're saving diligently, and they're contributing to their families and their community. They still can't afford a place to call home. All the time, I hear from Australians who dream of owning their home but can't see a pathway to homeownership. I hear from renters whose rents increase as they struggle to save for the 20 per cent deposit needed to buy their first home. It all just feels out of reach.

A home is more than just a roof over your head. It's a place for family, where birthdays are celebrated, which kids take their first steps, where memories are made. For a generation of Australians, though, this homeownership has felt like a distant dream. On top of that, renters have felt insecure, with the scales tipped against them.

The Albanese Labor government is continuing to listen to young Australians, and we're continuing to deliver for them. We're delivering on our election promise to ease the housing crisis and help more Australians to own their own home. From 1 October, everyone in Melbourne's west and across Australia will be able to buy their first home with a five per cent deposit. It's a game changer. For many, this will mean the difference between continuing to rent indefinitely and stepping into homeownership. It will cut years off the time that it takes to save for a deposit. There are no income caps and no limits on the number of places. It means that more families, more young people and more single parents can access this support. We'll have house-price caps that reflect the cost of homes where you live, which means people won't be forced to look too far from their communities or their families to qualify. And, because the government will guarantee part of these mortgages, people won't have to pay tens of thousands of dollars in lenders mortgage insurance. In just the first year alone, first home buyers using the scheme are expected to avoid around $1.5 billion in potential mortgage insurance costs. We're also continuing the Family Home Guarantee, which helps single parents buy a home with a two per cent deposit. For first home buyers in Melbourne's west, I know this will make a real difference.

But expanding access to five per cent deposits to all first home buyers is just one plank of the Albanese government's Homes for Australia agenda. Since we first came to government, we've already seen 180,000 Australians get into homeownership with the Albanese Labor government's support. In my community alone, nearly 1,000 households have already participated in the Home Guarantee Scheme since we came to government in May 2022. That's a thousand families who now have a place to call their own and who have moved from renting to owning—from insecurity to stability. Under Labor, there have been 6,000 more first-home-buyer loans a year, compared to the coalition's previous period in office. Labor's shared-equity scheme, Help to Buy, will mean that the Commonwealth government pitches in up to 40 per cent of the upfront costs of a home, meaning first home buyers can purchase a home with a smaller mortgage.

We're not just helping people buy homes, though; we're building more homes too, and building more homes means more affordable homes for everyone. We've started the biggest housing build in Australia's history, investing $43 billion in housing in pursuit of an ambitious target of the construction of 1.2 million homes over the next five years. As part of our plan to build more homes, we're investing $10 billion to build 100,000 homes reserved for first home buyers.

Our investments in Australians' aspirations to own a home are complemented by our commitments to make renting more secure. We're working with states and territories to make renting fairer. We've built more rentals with stronger protections. We've passed legislation to help deliver 80,000 new rentals across the country, and all rentals under this scheme will have five-year leases, which will provide renters with more certainty and more security. We're working with the states and territories to implement stronger protections for tenants and to ensure that renters can make their rental their own. Because of our reforms, most states have implemented minimum standards for rental properties. Renters are now guaranteed a baseline standard for their rental property, which wasn't guaranteed before, to ensure that their rental is actually habitable. Our reforms have also meant that most states have now banned no-grounds evictions. Stamping out no-grounds evictions provides renters with more certainty, stability and security. It also allows renters to establish a more stable home and better plan for the future of themselves and their families. We've delivered a 45 per cent increase in Commonwealth rental assistance, helping one million low-income Australians to pay the rent.

We're delivering 55,000 social and affordable rental homes for the Australians that need them the most. Through programs like the Housing Australia Future Fund, we're reducing the social housing waiting list and delivering homes for vulnerable women, children, veterans and key workers. We're investing $1.2 billion in building new crisis and transitional accommodation. This investment will ensure at-risk groups like women, younger Australians and those fleeing domestic violence have access to safe and stable housing.

Building more homes and supporting renters wouldn't be possible if we didn't invest in the people we need to build these homes. We're training more tradies through our fee-free TAFE program. The fee-free construction program will boost the number of skilled workers in the construction and housing sector. This will ensure that Australia has the skilled workers to build the houses that we need. We're providing $10,000 incentive payments to apprentices in construction. We're investing $78 million to fast-track qualifications of 6,000 tradies, to help build more homes across Australia. The Advanced Entry Trades Training program will help experienced but unqualified workers get the qualifications and recognition they deserve for their work. The program will assess participants' skills by a recognition-of-prior-learning process and then fill in any gaps with individualised training delivered by TAFEs and other high-quality registered training organisations. The best bit is that if they need extra training, it will be free.

We're also cutting red tape with our planning reforms. We're providing $120 million from the National Productivity Fund to incentivise states to remove red tape to help build houses faster, and we're leading efforts to speed up construction. We're delivering $54 million in investment in advanced manufacturing of prefab and modular homes. The Albanese Labor government is building new homes, supporting renters, ensuring we have a skilled workforce for our housing agenda, and cutting red tape. We're tackling this housing crisis from every angle.

But, unfortunately, this crisis wasn't created overnight, and that means that it won't be fixed overnight. The crisis we're currently experiencing is a result of decades of underinvestment and neglect. We're working hard to undo this decade of neglect by the coalition, who didn't even have a housing minister for most of their time in office. As my colleague, Minister O'Neil, told parliament last week, they built just 373 social and affordable homes in nine years. If that wasn't bad enough, they continue to oppose homeownership for Australians. They voted against Help to Buy; in fact, they promised to abolish the scheme entirely. They didn't support our policy to deliver 100,000 homes for first home buyers. Bizarrely, they are now trying to scrap 80,000 new rentals by raising taxes on builders. It's as if they've completely given up. On this side of the House, we haven't.

Owning a home is a dream that should be available to all Australians—not just some. We're making that dream more achievable. The Albanese Labor government was elected with a clear mandate to support the aspirations and dreams of all Australians. From 1 October, the days of 20 per cent deposits for first home buyers are over. We're bringing the dream of homeownership within reach of everyone in my community of Melbourne's west and across Australia. It's not just a policy change. It's a change which will support Australians to achieve their goals and dreams.

We're removing barriers which hold Australians back from homeownership. We're building more rentals with stronger protections, and we're delivering more social and affordable homes for vulnerable Australians. We're working with states and territories to make renting fairer, and we're boosting rent assistance. We're offering a clear, fair pathway to homeownership for all Australians. We are investing in the future of housing. We're speeding up construction. We're investing in the workforce we need to build new homes, and we're fast-tracking the qualifications of experienced but unqualified tradies.

This housing crisis has been decades in the making, but last weeks announcement of five per cent deposits for first home buyers is another plank in our Homes for Australia plan, a comprehensive plan that tackles every dimension of this crisis.

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