Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move the motion relating to first home buyers in the terms which it appears on the Notice Paper:

That this House:

(1) acknowledges the Government's commitment to help first home buyers realise their dream of ownership by:

(a) bringing forward the launch of the 5 per cent deposits scheme for all first home buyers to 1 October 2025, instead of next year;

(b) expanding the 5 per cent deposits scheme with unlimited places and increased property price caps;

(c) guaranteeing a portion of a first home buyer's home loan through the 5 per cent deposits scheme, so they can purchase with a lower deposit and avoid lenders' mortgage insurance; and

(d) offering eligible single parent families with a saved 2 per cent deposit access to the Family Home Guarantee; and

(2) notes that 180,000 Australians have already been helped into home ownership through the Government's housing policies.

In the thousands of conversations that I had with the wonderful people of Macnamara leading up to the election, I often asked them a pretty simple question: 'What do you care about? What's important to you?' and, time and time again, what people in my electorate came back to me with was: 'We'd like to buy our own home; we'd like to be able to purchase our own home, get out of the rental market and set up our lives so that we're accumulating an asset and paying off our own mortgage and not someone else's.' This is a trend and a sentiment that is expressed by not just the wonderful people of Macnamara but also people right around our country.

People know that to be able to get into the housing market means being able to work overtime to pay off a mortgage, to build up an asset, and to potentially retire with their own home—to have their own house as a place of safety and security. But we also know that, as a long-term trend in this country, the cost of housing, in proportion to one's own salary, has gone up dramatically and that what used to be affordable 30 or 40 years ago, at around three or four times one's average salary, is now way, way higher. The cost of homes is just so much higher than it used to be. So people are being locked out of the housing market. When people are locked out of the housing market, more and more people are in the rental market. With more and more people in the rental market, rental prices are going up, and it is harder for people to be able to save up for that deposit to get in. That, we know, is one of the fundamental barriers to people being able to access the housing market.

Our policy that was announced before the election was that we were going to allow people to get into the housing market and purchase a home with a deposit of five per cent, or two per cent for single parents. I can't tell you, Deputy Speaker Mascarenhas, how many times the response to, 'What's important to you?' was, 'We'd like to buy our own home,' and I'd say, 'Well, have you heard about our five per cent deposits?' and the response was, 'Actually, yes; we've done our research, and that's one of the things we're thinking about right now.' So, when our incredible and hardworking housing minister announced that we were bringing forward the five per cent home deposits to start on 1 October, it was for the people that I had spoken to in the line; it was for the people in our communities—the hardworking people in Macnamara and right across the country—who just want to be able to buy their own home.

I can tell you that there have been thousands of people across the country beginning the process of accessing the five per cent deposits. There has been such a big interest in this program because we know that, for those people who are unable to build up their deposit because of all of the expensive things that are going on in their world, this will make it possible. It's not easy, but it, hopefully, will be possible for thousands of Australians.

Already, our Home Guarantee Scheme has helped more than 185,000 Australians into homeownership, and this is simply because the average Australian is able to get into the housing market with a lower deposit and they don't have to pay lenders mortgage insurance, which, for many households around the country, means savings in the $30,000 range. This is a massive saving for families and for hardworking Australians. When you think about the sort of response that we've seen from the coalition about how this program is somehow benefiting the kids of billionaires, you really have to ask yourself: What planet are they living on? Have they spoken to anyone outside of their own echo chamber? I know they like to talk about themselves a lot in this place and around the country. They like doing media conferences about the inner sanctum of the Liberal Party and the National Party and whatever's happening in there, but what Australians actually care about is their own home—having a safe place to live in and potentially owning and paying off their own home. Instead of talking down to Australians, like the Liberal Party is doing, we want to lift Australians up. We want Australians to have the aspiration of owning their own home and we want to make it possible, and that is exactly what our five per cent deposit scheme is all about. It's about making it possible for hardworking Australians to own their own home. I couldn't be prouder of this policy.

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