Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Housing) | Hansard source

The bill that the lower house passed this morning is about something really important not just to the people I represent and not just to the people that we represent but to the people that those opposite represent in parliament. Instead of coming into this parliament and engaging in the new opportunities that we are opening up for first home buyers around this country, they are trying to engage with everything but that.

Now, they can play political parlour games. I've been in opposition. It's very frustrating. I understand. But I can tell the Australian people that, no matter what they say opposite, we will not be deterred from the task that is in front of us, and that is a housing market that has been breaking slowly but surely over a 40-year period. We have got homeownership rates around this country falling through the floor, yet those opposite will not come into the parliament and properly engage on what to do about it. Well, we are proud of the bill that has passed the parliament this morning—not just a level playing field for first home buyers but 75,000 rental households into a home of their own, and that's the opportunity they deserve.

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