Claire Clutterham (Sturt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I bought my first house in 2017, when I was 35. I'd been living overseas for almost the past decade—actually in the beautiful part of the world that the member for Calwell is from. I was seeing the world, working hard and having unforgettable experiences that shaped the person I am today. I came back to Adelaide in late 2016, and it was necessary for me to move back in with my parents. But, having lived out of home in various rental properties and share houses since I was 23 years old, I couldn't wait to move out, to put down roots in my own little piece of the earth, to get a couple of pets, to play the music I wanted to play, to cook what I wanted when I wanted, to buy the type of furniture I liked and to create a little garden in a small backyard. So being back home with mum and dad was a very strong motivation to try and buy a house, and I ended up buying the second house that I saw.

I lived by myself in that house with my pets for about four years until I met the man who would go on to become my husband and moved in with him. But that house meant so much to me—and still does—because it was mine. I worked hard to save to buy it. No-one helped me. My parents are hardworking people, but they didn't have the money to help me buy a house. I did it on my own, and it's my little piece of the earth. I vividly remember getting a kick every single time I drove home from work, from the shops, from the gym, from wherever I had been, and turned onto my street, turned up my driveway and parked in the garage of the house that I owned. I got a kick out of it every time—the knowledge that this was my house, the knowledge that I was building my future and that I would have security of housing, a roof over my head, and in Adelaide, a place that I love.

That feeling, that kick, that thrill, that sense of pride, is what I want for all Australians—to feel that sense of security as they drive up their street, as they drive up their driveway, as they get out of the car and unlock the front door to their own home. I want Australians to be able to put down roots in a community, to feel the pride and the sense of relief that I felt when I was able to access the housing market. When I bought my house, I had a good job and a good income, and I remember thinking: 'Gosh, this is actually really expensive. This is crazy. I can't believe what I paid and how long it took me to save for a 20 per cent deposit.' But time has passed since then, and it has gotten more expensive. We know this. It's even harder to save for a 20 per cent deposit, even if you have a good job and a good income. The housing environment that we find ourselves in was decades in the making, and there is no quick fix.

The Albanese Labor government understands this. It understands that housing is a life-defining challenge for so many Australians and that people are working hard, saving and sacrificing and they still can't afford their own home. This is not fair, because secure housing is a right. This is why the Albanese Labor government has a $45 billion three-pronged plan of attack to build more homes, to make it easier to buy and to make it easier for renters. It is a case of building more houses—we need more houses—and that is why Labor has an ambitious target of 1.2 million new homes within the next five years. But this is a challenge, and this is why we are taking steps to ease red tape, to make land and building approvals easier, to reform the building and construction code, to make it easier for builders to build the homes that we need. This is where free TAFE comes in, free TAFE for those in the building and construction industry, because we know that we need more houses and houses don't build themselves. We need highly skilled, highly qualified tradespeople to do that work so that young Australians can get into a home to secure their future.

In South Australia, almost 8,000 people, including hundreds of people in my electorate of Sturt, have taken advantage of Labor's five per cent deposit scheme—not 20 per cent; five per cent—giving them a foot on the property ladder and getting them into their own home so they too can now buy the furniture that they like, play the music they like and get a couple of pets. Most importantly, they're going to get the same kick, the same thrill, that I did every time I drove up my driveway and turned the key to open the door to my own home. A five per cent deposit means that the life-changing prospect of homeownership is now within reach for many more Australians, and that matters to people in every community in every part of this country.

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