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

I thank the member for Bean for his question and I want to acknowledge the fantastic advocacy that he undertakes in this parliament for his community. There is a really important bill before our parliament. This is a bill that is going to deliver a tax cut for every single working Australian and a bill that will help level the playing field for the first time for Australia's first home buyers. These are urgent and important changes for our country to make. If we just step back from the political debate that we're all engaged in, at a time when homeownership rates are falling through the floor for Australia's young people, our country simply cannot keep tilting the playing field away from first home buyers. That's exactly what our tax reforms are seeking to change.

When members vote on this legislation on Thursday, they're going to face a pretty simple choice: who are they here to fight for? Is it working Australians and aspiring homeowners, or is it the people who already have the system stacked in their favour? For me and for the members behind me, this is not a complicated question. We are on the side of first home buyers and we are on the side of working Australians who are trying to get ahead.

Now, I'm asked about alternatives. The Liberals and the Nationals have already made their choice. They did it before they even bothered to read the legislation. They are going to come into the parliament tomorrow and they are going to vote against a tax cut for every single working Australian. And not just that—they're going to come into this parliament and vote against every single aspiring first home buyer in our country. That comes on top of the years that they have spent attacking everything that our government is doing to help young people get into the market. I shake my head and wonder what has happened to the party of Robert Menzies. This is a party that once said that it stood up for first homeownership. Today, they are a pathetic shadow of what they once were. I want to just remind you—

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