Matt Gregg (Deakin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

One of the great honours of entering this parliament is the ability to engage in and work in a range of important and interesting policy areas with some incredible people in this chamber, in the community, in our local communities and, of course, in the business sector. But there's one policy area which I am particularly keen to ensure that we get right in the next three years, and that is housing. For too long, housing has had a bit of an on-and-off-again relationship with the Commonwealth. But, finally, we have a government that has moved from being a negligent bystander to one of the most—in fact, the most—active and engaged governments we've seen in the post-war years.

We've got a $43 billion plan to build more homes, make it easier to rent and make it easier for people to buy. Since the Labor government was elected, 180,000 Australians have bought their first home under the five per cent deposit scheme. More than a million households have benefited, with an almost 50 per cent increase in Commonwealth rental assistance. We are also seeing a turnaround in the number of houses being built, with over 500,000 homes built since this government was elected. We're seeing new starts in housing construction go up by about 17 per cent. More than 25,000 social and affordable homes are now in planning and construction, with over 50,000 social and affordable homes completed. We're going to implement Help to Buy, which is going to open up the housing option for more Australians as part of a shared-equity scheme, but every single first home buyer is also going to have access to their first home with a five per cent deposit, with far more realistic guidelines reflecting the market price of housing in the modern world. Importantly, we are cutting red tape and improving planning through the National Planning Reform Blueprint.

There's a lot of regulation often brought out of goodwill, but we've come to a point where we do need to take a high-level look and make sure that we are doing housing in the most effective and efficient way we possibly can. It has become an issue of intergenerational equity, and it's also become one where the most vulnerable in our society can no longer be ignored. So it is great to be part of a government that is grasping the nettle and taking a really ambitious approach to getting on with the job of addressing this housing crisis.

In my electorate of Deakin, so far 686 people have bought their first home with a five per cent deposit, and that's only going to increase substantially once these changes are made, because the price of housing in Deakin has gone up to levels that are far higher than they once were. We're funding 62 homes in Mitcham in my electorate through the first rounds of the Housing Australia Future Fund. We've supported the delivery of 80 more social and affordable houses in Ringwood through grants and low-cost funding, and we've got 13 new homes dedicated to women and children escaping family violence. This is life-changing stuff for those families. The sense of security that you can get from having a roof over your head, one that you don't have to worry about losing tomorrow, a safe place to call home, is one of the greatest gifts we can give these families.

More than 540 construction trades have already received $5,000 supports, and we continue to support the training of more tradies in our area with the $10,000 incentive program. We expect to see many more. Mr Albanese was one of the most popular people I'd seen in Deakin at the Swinburne Croydon TAFE, and we've got some fantastic new tradies in the pipeline. I'm very much looking forward to seeing them run their local small businesses in our area.

Housing is going to be one of the great legacies of this generation of politicians if we get it right. I'm really not here to have fights about housing. This topic is too important. And, frankly, I'm yet to meet someone in politics on any level that says that we've done housing right to date. We've got work to do. It is important work. We've got to focus on what works and what helps. The progress we've made so far is incredible. I can only hope that we treat this with the seriousness it deserves. We've got a generation of young people who deserve to have hope and optimism about the future that lies ahead, and one of the keys to achieving that goal is to make sure that their aspiration of having their own home is realistic and achievable in the communities that they've grown up in, in the communities where they've built their social networks, in the communities that they've called home their entire lives. If we want to make sure that generational equity becomes a reality, housing has to be on the top of the priority list.

And you'll find that it has benefits economic, social and even psychosocial. The fact that you have that stability in your life can help address many of the stresses in people's lives at the moment. It's also a cost-of-living measure. If less of your pay packet is going into rent or a mortgage repayment, your financial stability improves substantially. So I hope that we can work together on this generational challenge. It's one that deserves the utmost serious treatment of this parliament and all levels of government. We all need to work together. We know that there are forces that have genuine interests that might not be a big building next door, but we owe this one to the kids. (Time expired)

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