Alicia Payne (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My constituents Abby and Lachlan, both just 23, recently bought their first home in Lawson in my electorate. I want to thank them for welcoming me, the Prime Minister and the Minister for Housing to their home yesterday to hear about what it means to them to be paying off their own mortgage rather than someone else's and to meet their very cute puppy, Chilli, who they've been able to welcome now that they have their own home. This has been possible because of the Albanese government's five per cent home deposit scheme. We were there yesterday to announce that our election promise to expand eligibility of the five per cent deposit scheme to every first home buyer will be brought forward to 1 October this year. This is a game changer for countless young Australians who have been diligently saving to buy their first home—who might be living with parents as Abby and Lachlan were—and see the saving of 20 per cent deposit as an almost insurmountable task. This will bring them a step closer than ever before to having a place they can call their own. Since coming to office in 2022, Labor has helped over 180,000 first home buyers get into a home of their own with a lower deposit. This is just one part of our housing agenda. We've invested $43 billion in our Homes for Australia plan as we work toward our target of 1.2 million new homes by 2030. We're fast-tracking the approvals of 26,000 homes that have stagnated. We're freezing changes to the National Construction Code so that builders can get on with the job— (Time expired)