Jo Briskey (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We have a current housing crisis in this country that has been 40 years in the making, and I'm so proud to be a member of a government which has a bold and ambitious agenda to do something about it. The reality is right now that, for so many, the promise of owning your own home has slipped even further out of reach, and renting is increasingly becoming more expensive and more insecure.

The fact that those opposite did basically nothing in their time in government—let it get harder and harder for people—and now have the gall to obstruct our government's plan just beggars belief. I find it astounding that, in the nine years of that coalition government, many years spent without even having a housing minister, they managed to build only 373 new social and affordable homes.

The Albanese government has already delivered more than that in my electorate alone, having secured 379 new social and affordable homes across Ascot Vale, Flemington and Moonee Ponds. We are building more homes. We are making it better to rent and easier to buy.

I know that many first home buyers in Maribyrnong are absolutely wrapped with our call to bring forward the start date of our five per cent deposit program. This will be a game changer for young people, new families, single parents and anyone who thought that the housing market had left them behind.