Jerome Laxale (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

'Single mother outbids two rivals for $745,000 townhouse', 'We had given up on Yarraville: first home buyers win $955,000 house', 'First home buyer outbids seven others for unit in Mortdale', 'Laid some roots: new home owners celebrate unexpected auction success'—these are very real headlines in very real newspapers talking about the immediate impact of our difficult but very necessary reforms in the budget. A first home buyer buying a house should not be newsworthy, but so broken is our housing market that, yes, this is news—for now.

Like some pimpled adolescent science students at school mixing vinegar and bicarb soda, the Liberals mixed negative gearing with a 50 per cent capital gains tax discount on existing homes in 1999, and that little experiment blew up the housing market. That mistake, which was designed to get more people to invest in shares, backfired. In fact, fewer people invested in shares, and it locked out a generation from owning their first home.

On budget night, it took Labor to fix that mistake. When you partner our reforms with our five per cent home deposit scheme and more supply, we are clearly here to turn things around for young people. The Liberals and Nationals defend the status quo; we want to get more people into homes.

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