Matt Smith (Leichhardt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I grew up in towns of timber, agriculture, defence and mining, and I represent the most Australian place in Australia. I know the Australian dream, unlike the member for Goldstein, who, when he's not desecrating Billy Joel—the temerity to attack the piano man in such a way!—is downloading his own book, as we discovered today during the MPI, which I guess is akin to the member for Hunter wearing his Commonwealth medals into the place. He's put together a website so he can speak to working people. Fantastic! I don't need a website. I grew up with them. I know them. These are my friends, my family.

I'm going to talk about a guy who I went to high school with. His name was Niz. It's an abbreviation of his last name. He was the first one of us to shave. He was a sprinter. He played basketball with us. He was built like a bowling ball. Niz wanted nothing more in life than to be a mechanic. He was a good mechanic. He went and worked for Holden—the great Australian car—and he climbed the ranks, to the point where his job was to take the new car out into the bush and do his level best to break it. Then he'd come back, fix it up and start again. We'd have beers when we got to catch up, every now and then, and he would take us through the new car, with sound effects. My favourite would be when it dropped from fifth to third. He loved that job. He loved everything about it. That was his dream.

The member for Goldstein is an economic rationalist. He called the Australian car manufacturing industry 'terminal' and celebrated its demise. What about Niz's dream? That was all he wanted, and it was snatched away. Most people's dreams aren't like those of the member for Hunter here, a five-time Olympian. They're modest, easy. They want to go camping with the kids. They want a nice family. They want security. These are the things my children speak to me about. More than anything else, they want their own home. Homeownership is that part of Australia that belongs to you, where you'll bring your babies home to, where the grandparents will meet the grandchildren for the first time, where memories are forged. My parents live in the house I grew up in. They've owned it for 46 years now. The stickers that I put on the door are still there, because they own that home.

Renting cannot give you that, and that is why we have to address this. We have to give young people the opportunity and let them back into the property market, because they don't have hope. They look at it and go, 'This is ridiculous—$1.2 million for a house!' It's a number that you can't even think about when you're working slinging boost juice for $42,000 a year or working at the local council for $85,000 to $90,000 a year. You're never going to get there. Changes have to be made, and to make changes you have to be courageous. This government is courageous. It identified a problem that has been brewing since I was a child: house prices going up, up, up. It looks fantastic on paper, but, as the economic rationalists do not see, there is a living cost, a real cost, and that is snatching the hopes and dreams of young Australians.

This change will boost supply. We're not saying don't negatively gear; we're saying negatively gear, but build the house. Get more housing. Get more people into the housing. Let them rent it at a reasonable rate to start their lives. Then they can enter the housing market for themselves and, in 40 years time, the stickers from their child will still be on the door. They can have their holidays and return to their home, with their dog or their cat. They won't be living under the rules of someone else. They won't be paying off someone else's mortgage. Homeownership used to be something that everyone could aspire to, but it was taken away. This Labor government is giving it back. We are looking young people in the eye and saying, 'Yes, we have heard you; we are acting, and Australia is as much yours as it was the previous generations.'

I'm proud of this budget, I'm proud to be a member of this government, and I am proud that young Australians will have their own homes.

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