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

I was asked about house prices in my electorate and around Australia. I say again to those opposite speaker: when are they going to stop and listen to what our country is telling us about what's gone wrong for housing in Australia? The reason that we have taken this significant step to address issues in our housing market is for the benefit of the young people who are sitting today in the public gallery. I say respectfully to those on the other side of the chamber that house prices have gone up 400 per cent in the last 25 years in our country—400 per cent. At what point are those opposite willing to accept that we have a significant problem with housing in our country? And, if we allow this to continue for another generation, then opportunity and aspiration in our country are going to mean something fundamentally different.

I'll just finish by saying this: I was raised in an incredibly patriotic household, and I was raised to believe that the most important thing about our country is that it was equal and fair. That is changing about our nation because of our broken housing market. We've got homeownership rates for young people falling through the floor. A low income young couple is half as likely to own their own home in Australia today than they were in the year that I was born—and they want to do absolutely nothing about it. Well, we have a different view. We represent all Australians, especially those young people in the gallery.

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