House debates

Monday, 1 September 2025

Documents

Housing Australia Investment Mandate Amendment (Delivering on Our 2025 Election Commitment) Direction 2025; Consideration

11:56 am

Photo of Tania LawrenceTania Lawrence (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

Housing is more than just shelter; it's about security, opportunity and community. Affordable accessible housing should not be a privilege. In Australia, it is a right. That's why the Albanese Labor government is taking this bold action—to make homeownership more accessible, more affordable and more achievable. Too many people are working hard and trying to save but feel like the dream of homeownership has never been further out of reach. Labor is making it easier for you to buy your own home. From 1 October, every first home buyer will only need a five per cent deposit. We're delivering this commitment three months early, so more Australians can benefit from the program sooner. This will cut years off the time it takes to save for a deposit, helping Australians into their own homes sooner. And you won't have to pay a single dollar in mortgage insurance. Australia's housing crisis was obviously decades in the making, and it won't be fixed overnight. There's a lot of work to do, but we are making real progress right across the country.

In Hasluck, the housing crisis isn't abstract; it's deeply felt. Before the election, the Salvation Army reported that 83 per cent of the community said that housing affordability and homelessness are the most pressing issues in the electorate, and nearly 43 per cent said that it affects them personally. This certainly aligns with my experience of meeting with constituents throughout the year. The Salvation Army has stated that there is an unmet need for more than 2,900 dwellings in our area. At the national level, our Albanese Labor government understands that real change requires bold and practical solutions. That is why we delivered on the $43 billion Homes for Australia plan. It's an historic achievement—the biggest housing initiative since the postwar boom. Under the existing Home Guarantee Scheme, since May 2022, 1,890 people have already signed up and are benefitting from the low deposits. That's 1,260 households in Hasluck that are already benefitting. I look forward to seeing the numbers continue to grow.

The Labor Albanese government are making it easier to buy but also better to rent, and we're building more homes. We went to the election in May with the expanded five per cent deposit scheme. Starting from 1 October, every Australian first home buyer, no matter their income, can purchase a home with just a five per cent deposit and avoid paying the lenders mortgage insurance. Here's what that means in practice: first home buyers will need just a five per cent deposit; single parents will only need two per cent deposit. Housing Australia provides the guarantee to the buyer's bank to enable a home buyer to borrow up to 95 per cent, or 98 per cent for single parents, of that property's value.

We know that deposit relief isn't enough. We are also increasing housing supply, especially in fast growing electorates like Hasluck. That's why our Homes for Australia plan includes a dedicated $10 billion investment to build up to a hundred thousand new homes, exclusively for first home buyers across Australia.

In practical terms for Hasluck, a rapidly growing electorate of the outer metropolitan corridor, this means genuinely real opportunities for the people that I meet every day. These homes will be delivered in partnership with the state government and industry, using fast-tracking strategies, repurposed land and planning reforms. In fact, work has already begun on social and affordable apartments in Hasluck. Stage 1 of the developments is delivering 197 social and affordable homes in Ellenbrook and 56 in Woodbridge. Stage 2 will deliver another 120 social and affordable apartments in Midland and, across the railway line, 73 in Bassendean. These developments are all located by the train lines. Particularly for the new Ellenbrook line, this will create even more heart to our community there, because housing is more than just a roof over their head. It is about quality of life. It's access to employment, shops, schools, gyms and, of course, the community.

Let me paint a picture of the real difference this will make in Hasluck. Consider Marie and John, young professionals living out in Ellenbrook. Under the expanded scheme, they can now save up a five per cent deposit in years—not decades—and avoid tens of thousands of dollars in lenders' mortgage insurance and then apply that money directly into their own home instead of paying rent into the hands of a landlord. They can live close to the train line now that we've completed the train line in Ellenbrook, and takes them all the way into the city, if that's where they choose to work. They live close to the shopping centres and the new Ellenbrook pool that this government is co-funding.

For women returning to work after raising children, tradespeople and young couples, this plan lowers the barrier at the most critical step: the deposit. It also and expands eligibility. There are no income caps and no place limits, so modest income earners and frontline workers—everyone gets a fair go. And it's important to understand that this policy change is not merely about saving people money, although it will save first home buyers a lot of money. It will save them years of interest and save them the rent that they would have been paying if they hadn't bought a home—tens of thousands of dollars of rent, according to Treasury modelling.

So, for a home costing $500,000 which, in the election of Hasluck, is a unit in Midland or an apartment in Ellenbrook, Treasury estimates it would take about two years to save a five per cent deposit, rather than the seven years it would have taken for a 20 per cent deposit. That would also save rent of around $87,000. In Bassendean, first home buyers can buy a home for about $850,000 with a $42,000 deposit. That saves up to 10 years of 'saving time' and $42,000 in mortgage insurance—money better used to pay down their mortgage instead. Getting into their own home sooner saves time and stress. It saves the stress of having to overextend to get in the housing market in the first place, for those who are able to. Saving people money is a good thing. Saving money and time and stress is even better and is a hallmark of this government across many areas of policy, including health, where we've made medicines cheaper; and education, where we've provided free TAFE as well as reduced the HECS debt.

Let's look at what industry voices are saying. According to the HIA, since 2000, the insurance requirement for first home buyers with deposits under 20 per cent has added heavy costs, delayed ownership, driven up rents and worsened housing affordability. This policy works to address these things. HIA Chief Economist, Tim Reardon, has stated that the government should be commended for 'taking a view of housing policy that extends beyond the next election'. He said:

More new home construction, fewer households renting and increased home ownership will all occur because of this policy announcement, eventually.

As we know, rents are currently at a high mark historically right around the country. In many places, it's less economical to pay rent than to pay a mortgage, but a 20 per cent deposit remains an obstacle to making a shift. Now this government will make it significantly easier to make the shift. The scheme, aimed at assisting people to get into homeownership, is also predicted by the HIA and others to have the effect of taking pressure off rents in the medium and long term. It's good for renters too. The policy is also being welcomed by the Customer Owned Banking Association, COBA, and the government has instructed Housing Australia to promote greater diversity among lenders. We expect that this will see more mutual banks and credit unions added to the lender panel, increasing competition and creating an environment where there is a better deal for customers. COBA Chief Executive Officer Michael Lawrence agrees, saying:

More customer-owned banks on the HGS panel will create a more dynamic, inclusive, and competitive market.

Those opposite would have Australians believe that the housing crisis has suddenly appeared, but this is simply not the case. It has festered and grown through decades of neglect and lack of attention to even acknowledge the problem let alone address it. Members opposite have had the temerity to stand up and talk about housing policy, when they failed to even have a housing minister over most of their time in office. This bald fact says all Australians need to know about their failure to prioritise housing. They also voted against Help to Buy and promised to abolish the scheme. They didn't even support 100,000 homes for first home buyers.

The housing neglect by those opposite is the reason why 83 per cent of my community identified it as the most pressing need, and it is no wonder that the coalition is staring down the void of electoral irrelevancy. But we're not ignoring it. We're not ignoring this problem. It won't be fixed overnight, but this housing policy is one more step in the right direction, which will immediately benefit many in Hasluck and around the nation. The right to buy a home is everyone's right, and the five per cent deposit has made it just that much easier.

12:06 pm

Photo of Simon KennedySimon Kennedy (Cook, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

The Member for Hasluck wants to talk about the opposition. It is not surprising, because their record on housing is so poor. This amendment is deeply flawed. Australia's housing crisis is a gaping wound for Australia, and the policy platform that Labor has cobbled together is barely a bandaid and not enough to stop the bleeding. Labor's so-called build-to-rent and community housing model is upside down. It subsidises corporate investors, their superfund mates and even offshore entities to own the homes of hardworking Australians. Not young Australians, not the young mums and dads in my electorate who are sweating hard for a first home deposit—Labor doesn't want these people to own a home. That's not housing policy; it's asset allocation for superfunds, and it leaves ordinary Australians in my electorate, hardworking Australians, scrapping together to try and pay for a deposit, paying the price and funding superfunds and corporate investors to build assets that everyday Australians will never own.

The Australian dream never was and never will be about being a permanent tenant. It never was about renting a unit or an apartment from some nameless multinational fund. It's about owning your own place, putting down roots, raising a family, building equity, building a future and building a stake in Australia. Under this government, more and more Australians will be tenants of superfunds, not homeowners in their own right. Labor wants to give homes to funds, leaving ordinary Australians to rent for life in the hope they'll vote for Labor. It's cynical, it's shortsighted, and it's selling out the Australian dream of homeownership. In my electorate of Cook, families tell me every single week they cannot break into the market. In Caringbah, Miranda and Sylvania, some of my more affordable suburbs, housing prices are still, on the median, up to $2 million. These are proud communities where people work hard, save hard and want the same chance their parents had. Yet first home buyers are being squeezed out by rising costs and a lack of supply. What's Labor's answer? It is not to help them buy, not to deliver ownership, but to hand taxpayer subsidies to institutional landlords to keep them renting. Young families can't keep up, and Labor's schemes won't help, because all they do is pit more buyers against each other for the same limited supply.

Labor is turbocharging demand. On this so-called Home Guarantee Scheme, we've had independent warnings. A report from Lateral Economics has made it very clear: expanding this scheme risks driving prices up by 3½ per cent to 6.6 per cent—in some markets, almost 10 per cent. For first home buyers in Sydney and Cook, that may mean paying $100,000 to $200,000 more for a home. This is a government turbocharging demand, not just through this scheme but through migration.

In the middle of a housing crisis, it should shock Australians to know that migration and our population are growing faster than any time in the last 75 years. What does this mean locally? In nearby Kirrawee, in the Cook electorate, there's at least a 14-storey high-rise precinct being pushed, and there's no clarity about who these apartments are for or who will own them. Are they going to be owned by super funds? Are they going to be corporate rentals? What we do know is local residents are being left in the dark. We know we're not getting upgrades to infrastructure or to schools, and this government's reckless migration policy is just shoving the pressure onto state governments, which are then shoving the pressure onto local communities with no respite in sight.

That's the other side of the problem. If governments want to put more money in our suburbs, they also need to put money into infrastructure. You can't add thousands of units without adding schools for the children who'll live there. You can't pile on these high-rises without fixing the roads and the transport links that people rely on. Take this 14-storey development in Kirrawee—Flora Street and Oak Road are already gridlocked. I've had almost 200 signatures from people in my electorate asking for these roads to be upgraded and for the traffic signals to be upgraded, but, instead, what the government is now proposing is to put up a 14-storey apartment block. This is what happens when you get a federal Labor government teaming up with a state Labor government and a local Labor council. You get people destroying communities without the investment in infrastructure.

Councillor Meredith Laverty has done great work there, talking with local businesses in the Kirrawee area who are complaining. They don't know how they're going to manage congestion. They don't know where their customers will park. Local businesses such as Brick Pit Espresso, Smalls Cellar, Great White Tattoo, Kids Inspired, Peach's Pages Bookstore, Mix Pizza Bar, Mi Fizzio Physiotherapy and Kirrawee Barbers have all expressed concerns about where their customers will park and how people will get access to their businesses.

The coalition's position is clear. We believe in homeownership. We believe in policies that put Australians in the front yard of a home they own, not in line for a corporate lease. We believe in housing that rewards aspiration and that says, if you work hard and save hard, you can own a little piece of Australia to make your stand and raise your family. That means we support policies that increase supply for buyers, not just renters. We support first home buyers, apprentices and young people to get a home and a foothold into Australia and a foothold into their future. We support a housing system that rewards work and sacrifice, not speculation and subsidies for super funds. The choice before us is clear. Under Labor's model, homes are treated as just another financial instrument for big investors and their super fund mates. Under the coalition's model, Australians themselves can buy and own and secure their future.

We call on all levels of government—local, state and federal—to come together on housing supply and affordability. Communities like my community in Cook, Kirrawee, deserve transparency. Australians don't want to rent forever, which is exactly what Labor's scheme is proposing. We say make it 'build to own', not 'build to rent'. Stop giving subsidies to corporates and super funds. Start giving them to people. People want to own their own homes. If the plan is to pack in more high-rises than deliver the schools, and the roads and the transport links that communities desperately need, Labor's approach may deliver the profits to super funds, but it will never deliver the keys to a first home to the hardworking people in my electorate of Cook.

The coalition will always back hardworking Australians to get ahead and buy a home. Under Labor, many of these people will end up being tenants for life. We choose aspiration over dependency, ownership over renting and families over funds. That is our vision for housing, and that is why we'll oppose this flawed approach, fight for the great Australian dream and fight for hardworking young people and hardworking families. The hardworking everyday Australians in the seat of Cook know that I will fight for them. I will fight for better policies so they can own their own home and not be Labor renters for life.

12:15 pm

Photo of Mike FreelanderMike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

Although I'm really not sure that the parliament has been waiting with bated breath to hear from a baby boomer about housing, accessing housing is a major concern for my constituents. Despite rapid development in my electorate over the years, being able to find secure, affordable housing remains a huge challenge. As a paediatrician, nothing is more disheartening than to see families have to frequently uproot their children from schools to move because the owner of the house they were renting wanted to sell it or move in or because the house wasn't big enough for an expanding family. It is very disheartening. That's why I'm very proud of our government's efforts to provide better housing opportunities for Australians, as it is providing real outcomes for those trying to get into the housing market in Macarthur and electorates way beyond.

Since coming into government in May 2022, after 10 years of the coalition's neglect of the housing situation and putting of barriers in place in front of people who were looking for housing, over 870 households in Macarthur have participated in our Home Guarantee Scheme, equating to almost 2,000 individuals. This means almost 2,000 people have been able to start the exciting next chapter of their lives—homeownership in a secure manner—which is not only great for them but great for our communities, and it's great for our kids to continue to thrive.

Housing affordability has long been an issue. We saw the coalition not only do very little in their 10 years of government but actively work against the government in the last term when it was trying to provide adequate housing solutions. Housing affordability has been an issue for many years. When those opposite were in government, whilst they spruiked their grand plans, nothing happened. It must have been a very light tackle when they said they were tackling this issue in previous governments, because the issue only continued to get worse. They voted against the Help to Buy scheme that we advocated and promised in fact to abolish the scheme. Those opposite have a really poor track record on housing affordability and accessibility in New South Wales at both the federal and state levels, whereas our government has grabbed the issue and run with it since coming into government in 2022.

I am proud that our government is the boldest and most ambitious Australian government on housing since the postwar period. Our $43 billion agenda is focused on three things: (1) building more homes; (2) making it easier to rent and making it more stable to rent; and (3) making it easier to buy. Since being elected, our housing policies have made a real difference to many Australians. Over 180,000 Australians have bought their first home with our five per cent deposit scheme. On average, there are 6,000 more first home buyer loans a year under our government than there were during the coalition's previous period in government. One million households have received a nearly 50 per cent increase in rent assistance, 500,000 homes have been built since we came to office, new housing approvals are up 30 per cent and construction costs have stabilised after skyrocketing under the previous coalition government. We've got 28,000 social and affordable homes, supported by our government, in planning and under construction. We know that the long-term solution to address the housing crisis in our country is to build more homes, both in terms of social housing and housing that people can afford to buy. Our five per cent deposit plan is helping Australians gain homeownership even sooner, as it slashes the amount of time required to save for a deposit. This is very important for young families and the families in my electorate that I've looked after for many years. Even better, we're delivering this three months earlier than we previously announced, meaning it will now start from 1 October.

As I said earlier, this housing crisis was not created overnight, and it sadly won't be fixed overnight. However, this is a real policy that will deliver real progress in our government's fight for achieving better housing affordability outcomes for all Australians. With our five per cent deposit policy, there are no income limits or limits on places, and there are house price caps that better reflect the cost of homes across Australia. Five per cent deposits will cut years off the time you need to save for a deposit, saving thousands in lenders mortgage insurance and rental payments over time and getting you into your own home much sooner—really important for the young families in my electorate of Macarthur and around Australia. It bothers me greatly to see my constituents, of all ages, struggling to get into the housing market. That includes older Australians as well as young families. There are families with parents who are in their 30s or 40s who are still saving to buy their first home. Our schemes will help that and will help it significantly. I truly hope that people across the age spectrum take advantage of the scheme.

Under this program, a first home buyer could take up to eight years off the time it takes to save for a deposit on the median $844,000 home in Macarthur. On the way, they could save about $34,000 in mortgage insurance and could pay up to a quarter of a million dollars towards their own loan rather than paying rent. The median home price in Australia today is $844,000. Five per cent of this is around $42,000. The last time $42,000 covered the 20 per cent deposit for the median home was around 2002, more than 20 years ago. That shows you the scope of this change. That's what good governments do. They see the challenge, and they try to correct it. I congratulate Clare O'Neil, the Minister for Housing, for the amount of hard work and thought that she's put into this process. It is a really important change and something that will help families whose kids I've looked after for almost half a century get into their homes earlier.

We're building more homes. We've increased rent supports, as well, and we're making it easier to access the housing market across the country. From the disadvantaged electorates in rural and regional areas to outer metropolitan areas like my own electorate of Macarthur and around the country in every state and territory in Australia, that's really important. I'm really proud to be part of this process. This will not only make the housing situation better for young families but create stability in the housing market. It means kids' schooling will be stable. As a paediatrician, I'll stop having to do the process of applying to different schools all the time for support packages for kids with disabilities who have to move all the time. It will really make things a lot better for young families and older people across the age spectrum in all our electorates. As I said, I'm really proud to be part of this, and I congratulate the housing minister.

I think that those opposite, in the coalition, need to think really hard about why they lost so many electorates around the country. Part of it was housing policy. No matter how much they try and talk themselves up as financial managers and being more prudent et cetera, they clearly have not shown that expertise in housing. They had 10 years of a deteriorating housing market in Australia to do something about it, and they did virtually nothing. That put large numbers of Australian families at a huge disadvantage, and now we're trying to play catch-up. Whilst it is hard, the housing minister, Clare O'Neil, has done a wonderful job at improving housing affordability in Australia across the age spectrum and across the electorate spectrum. This has made things a lot better for those families and for those young people. In the future, it will also mean our younger people will find housing affordability better. This measure is part of what Australia is getting from the Albanese government: improved lifestyle, improved affordability and reduced costs across the housing market and the cost-of-living issues, which we are doing to make life better for the families that I care for. I congratulate the minister, and I commend this bill to the House.

12:24 pm

Photo of Dai LeDai Le (Fowler, Independent) Share this | | Hansard source

Obviously everybody in this house is really passionate about addressing this housing shortage crisis that, at the moment, we are all hearing about from our community. I have no doubt that many members of the House here either own their house outright or have a small mortgage, so it's probably not as big a challenge for many of us in this house as it is for the rest of the Australian population. The government's new five per cent housing deposit scheme is being championed as a breakthrough for first home buyers. With years shaved off deposit savings, no lenders mortgage insurance and no income cap it really sounds terrific. It's easy to see the appeal. Just a five per cent deposit and you're told you can finally buy that home. On paper it's a dream come true.

But in my electorate residents are asking, 'If we're struggling to save five per cent, how will we ever manage the remaining 95 per cent of mortgage debt and the decades of interest that will follow?' Over a 25- to 30-year loan the bank stands to earn hundreds of thousands in interest while homeowners bear enormous financial risk. This five per cent doesn't really fix the root problem, which is supply. The five per cent doesn't even guarantee that you can actually buy the house, because the bank still has to assess the serviceability of your loan and your ability to pay it. What we're really seeing is a scheme that supercharges demand but does nothing for supply. I have constantly spoken in this house about the need to address the lack of supply, the infrastructure that we need—the roads, the public transport such as the east-west metro to connect south-west Sydney to the Western Sydney International Airport. We need to address all the infrastructure before we actually build homes.

Evidence backs this up. Independent modelling from the Insurance Council of Australia and Lateral Economics warns this expansion could push house prices up by as much as 10 per cent, and we have heard that from the member for Kennedy. Entry-level homes, where first home buyers compete, will see the steepest hikes, with price rises of between 3.5 per cent and 6.6 per cent nationally and even higher in our capital cities. Yes, families may save $21,000 to $28,000 on mortgage insurance, but many will watch their home's price climb quite significantly, leaving them worse off. Apparently research from Professor Chris Leishman at the University of South Australia forecasts similar impacts. Deposit schemes can drive prices up by seven to 10 per cent, and international evidence from New Zealand shows that, when deposit access was eased, prices soared and homeownership among young people actually fell.

Another thing is: why 1 October? What's this need to announce that, from 1 October, people can finally save up a deposit of five per cent? Can people realise how difficult it is for people to save up five per cent in the first place for a medium house in Fowler, currently around $1 million? For electorates like mine it's going to be a huge challenge. You don't need to be an economist to see the flaw. When you add demand to a market that's already short on supply, prices will certainly rise. The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute highlights this repeatedly. Treasury and the Housing Industry Association both project it could take three to six years for any real supply response, if it comes at all. In the meantime affordability only worsens. This isn't a theory for the people of Fowler. In my community, overcrowding, rising rents and a shortage of new homes are daily realities. Quick fixes don't ease that pressure. What families need are long-term investments in new supply, local infrastructure and genuine affordability measures. I have mentioned over and over again: infrastructure is critical for any housing development. If you don't have infrastructure, we won't be able to address housing shortages in addition to workforce shortages.

Migration is another dimension. Migration is one of our greatest strengths. It fills skills gaps, grows our economy and enriches our communities. Electorates like Fowler are evidence of that. Our wonderful multicultural community contributes greatly to our diverse economy, our city, our community, our state and our nation. But, when growth outpaces planning and investment in schools, hospitals, transport and especially housing, the affordability squeeze intensifies. My constituents see this every day. Poor planning means rents and house prices spike, and both new arrivals and long-term residents struggle.

In last week's Housing Industry Association forum, industry leaders were clear. The five per cent deposit scheme, in an already tight market, will only drive prices higher. The HIA has confirmed that Australia needs at least 83,000 more tradies in the years ahead, just to keep pace with construction needs. When it comes to housing, the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council projects a shortfall of over 200,000 homes by the end of the decade. Some industry bodies warn the real gap could be up to 400,000 dwellings. The government's own target of 1.2 million new homes by 2030 looks increasingly out of reach, while these workforce and supply constraints go unaddressed.

So let's be honest. The five per cent deposit scheme by itself is not a solution. It's a demand booster—a headline, not a fix. Real solutions require investment in building new homes, training local workers and thoughtful, coordinated planning to match migration with infrastructure. Affordable housing is the bedrock of health, education and strong families. I arrived here as a refugee, and I was very lucky back in the days, in the seventies and eighties, when we were able to live in a housing commission. It gave my late mother the opportunity to work in kitchens and restaurants and allowed my sisters and me to work towards buying our first home. Back in those days, a house in our area was around 80 grand to 100 grand or 200 grand. Now it's in the millions. It's really out of reach for any new arrivals, I believe.

To build a future where no family is left behind, we must match words with actions, short-term promises with long-term solutions, and demand with supply. My community in Fowler is not asking for another scheme. They're asking for real solutions, so don't give people false hope. I call on both the Labor and Liberals here to stop finger-pointing at one another and to focus on really addressing the issue at hand and focus on policies that are practical, implementable, affordable, accessible and impactful for the Australian people and the Australian economy.

12:33 pm

Photo of Ed HusicEd Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

Anyone in Sydney in the last week or so who thinks a lot about housing would have been absolutely perplexed with some of the reactions to boost housing supply in Sydney, especially the reaction of Woollahra council to the New South Wales government's proposal to build higher density homes close to the city but with infrastructure to be built alongside it. We had the Woollahra council reject that proposition of higher density homes being built in Woollahra. As someone from Western Sydney who has grown up and seen fields transformed into rows and rows of mortar and rooftop tiles continually, we would love the idea that you would have infrastructure built at the same time as housing, because I've got to tell you that that hasn't happened for quite some time.

Full credit to the Minns government for coming up with the idea that they would provide that in there. In our neck of the woods, we're still waiting for the completion of the missing link of the metro, while all these homes get built and there is no infrastructure, yet Woollahra council seem to have walked into a stable full of gift horses and made sure they didn't miss the opportunity to smack each one of them in the mouth by rejecting a plan that would build infrastructure and homes in a city where we do need to find places where we can get the critical workers that are important to cities. The nurses, the teachers, the cleaners, the mechanics—all the people who help modern cities function but who are being pushed to the furthest fringes of the city and made to travel at the weirdest hours of the day just to start their shifts, after having travelled probably over two hours to get to work—we've got to be able to have homes for those folks, who make sure our cities run, and ensure that they're built in the face of nimbyism, which certainly is the case for the Woollahra council decision, and we've got to think laterally about how to address supply.

I'm proud to be part of a government that's doing just that. We all recognise that we have to build more homes, and we have to do it in a range of different ways. If I can pick up on something the last speaker said, the member for Fowler, who talked about what's at the heart of what we're discussing here in the parliament at the moment—the five per cent deposit—we can't just rely on one thing. No-one from the government is suggesting that. We've actually got multiple options that are designed to address a housing crisis that has been decades in the making and to make sure that we provide relief to people.

I've got to tell you, the fact that we are enabling first home buyers to get their homes sooner, with a five per cent deposit, is a big deal. Here's the stat that tells you why it's a big deal: today it takes someone on the median income around 12 years just to save for a deposit. Back in the nineties, it took four to five years, so you can see how those times have absolutely blown out. We've got to address it, and we're bringing forward the ability for first home buyers to get access to that scheme, slashing the amount of time required to save for a deposit and uncapping the scheme, which is a terrific move. Also, for single parents, I might add, we'll continue the Family Home Guarantee, which helps them buy a home with a two per cent deposit. It's a terrific way to be able to do that. We need to be able to open up those avenues for first home buyers to buy their homes.

I know that, in my part of Western Sydney, this is a big issue. Later this month I'll be hosting a housing forum in my area to see how we can boost the building of social and affordable homes in Chifley in the outer western suburbs. We need to see more of that happen. We also need to see more homes built for people fleeing terrible situations such as domestic violence and to be able to provide crisis accommodation as well. We need to get that happening. I'm pleased to say that the New South Wales housing minister, Rose Jackson, will be coming along, and we'll be getting other experts in the field to talk through how we can create more social and affordable housing in the areas that I represent in my part of Western Sydney. Types of measures like what we're talking about today will be exceptionally important.

We've got to build more homes, we've got to improve the range of homes that are being built, and we've also got to help renters. People want to be able to buy their own home, for sure, but they need to live somewhere in the interim. We've got big challenges, though, in building homes. In the construction trades, we're 90,000 short of people available to build homes. How are you supposed to do that?

We also have competition. If you get more workers in to work in construction, you're instantly in competition with infrastructure projects, who are offering higher rates of pay for workers to go there. So, the minute you get people in construction, they get poached by infrastructure. That's a big deal. Also, we cannot keep importing labour to fill the gaps, which means we've got to find new ways to build homes.

One of those ways is certainly prefab and modular housing, which'll help us build homes faster and smarter. For people who think that those homes are just akin to the school demountables that they lived in, they clearly haven't walked through a prefab home that has been built recently with current, seven-star energy efficiency standards and is a comfortable place to be able to live. We need to do more of this. In Japan, it's estimated that 15 per cent of their homes have been manufactured in a factory. In Germany, that's up to 20 per cent, and in Scandinavia it could be anywhere between 45 to 80 per cent. We've got to be able to have these modern manufacturing methods being used to build homes faster and smarter. In doing so, according to the Productivity Commission, you cut 20 per cent off the construction costs and halve the time it takes to build these homes. It creates a great manufacturing opportunity. I've seen it in the western suburbs with places like Fleetwood in Smithfield, who are doing great work in being able to build a home in a factory, take it on the back of a truck and build it on site, which is particularly important.

We should use procurement to ramp this up. Future rounds of the HAFF should focus on using procurement and set a challenge to have the greatest number of prefab homes built using Australian industry and Australian manufacturers to do so. We should provide that platform of procurement and have the HAFF do that so that we can get the guarantee for the volume of supply. In other countries, prefab has fallen over because we have not seen governments provide the volume of work and the certainty of work that prefab manufacturers require to build their homes. We need more of that to be able to happen.

And Australians, according to Amplify, want to be able to move into prefabricated homes. In fact, the advocacy group Amplify said that 95 per cent plus support reform aimed at unlocking modern housing, community support for the reform grows as people learn more about prefabricated building and the opportunity for debate, and 94 per cent strongly agree there should be diverse housing options for all. Interestingly, Amplify found that people of all politics backed the reform. There's broad consensus, and all generations back that reform, which is important as well. We do need to unlock that. As a government, we have put some money in to back that in. I don't think we've put anywhere near enough. We need to put more in and be able to have HAFF do it.

But it's one of those great things about certain areas of policy that get put into Treasury—it takes a little bit longer to get ideas out the door. I often find Treasury is a great place for ideas to go to die, but housing being put in Treasury is probably one of the areas where I've always raised my eyebrows as to why it sits there. Treasury needs to probably—this is a subject for another day—get a clear focus on what its core functions are, but housing is in there for whatever reason. I'll be interested to see if Treasury does back the need for more prefab homes to be built and for us to be able to provide the existing procurement pathways for that to occur.

I just want to end on the coalition. The coalition did nothing through their time in government and are using their time in opposition to oppose everything when it comes to what we're doing on housing. They hardly built enough homes under their watch, certainly nowhere near the amount of social and affordable housing that we needed. Interestingly, now they're setting up this debate that renting is worse than buying. We heard that from the member for Cook. I wouldn't want us to look down our nose at what needs to be done to get roofs over people's heads. People want a range of options, and I would hate to think that the next battleline here is to oppose build-to-rent as one of the areas that we think is important to create more homes in Australia. (Time expired)

12:43 pm

Photo of Andrew WillcoxAndrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing and Sovereign Capability) Share this | | Hansard source

We need homes for every Australian. We need a housing policy that creates environments where everyone can find their own way into the housing market and stay there. We need actual housing policy that's more than writing a few cheques or throwing around big numbers with dollar signs. Getting housing policy right means getting supply right, and that supply needs to be in balance with demand. We need a housing policy where there's follow-through so that developers and builders can actually deliver so that the aspiration of homeownership is achieved more and more for everyday Aussies.

Last week, Labor member after Labor member was rolled out to applaud the government's Home Guarantee Scheme of a five per cent deposit with the removal of lender's mortgage insurance for first home buyers. On the surface, that sounds great for first home buyers—well, for now, anyway. But it's a scam. It will end up a mess—a mess for our economy, a mess for current mortgage holders, a mess for the government books and eventually a mess for the first home buyers who purchase under this scheme. A five per cent deposit will probably end up being like 20 per cent today, because it's going to drive the market up. Again, lower deposit rates and creating greater buying power for first home buyers will not fix the problem. We need to fix the supply and demand imbalance first. We need to be building more and building quickly and efficiently. Time is critical.

What about someone trying to get back into the market after previously owning a home? The scheme targeted at first home owners works against these people. The demand that Labor is creating will only add fuel to the fire and make homes for these people even further out of reach, and they won't have access to the same conditions. I'm talking about the people who have lost everything. Perhaps their marriage broke down or perhaps they had no choice but to sell up because interest rates have skyrocketed under this government. How are they meant to get back into the housing market? Where is their hand up? As an example, to paint a picture, imagine a 50-something-year-old woman. She may have devoted her life to her children, taking time away from work to care for them, and now they're all grown up, but her marriage is over. She has little or no savings and nothing left to get back into another home, because—here is the kicker for these people—housing just got more expensive off the back of this announcement. More demand without supply means higher house prices and higher rents as well.

I'm supportive of fewer housing based taxes and feel the rules should apply to all Australians looking to buy a primary residence. What I'm not supportive of are policies that will only put more pressure on supply and put the taxpayer on the hook for loan defaults. Sadly, homelessness is on the rise. It is the worst in living memory. We, the coalition, care about those that are doing it tough. We care about people who have fallen on hard times, whether they find themselves without a roof over their heads for the first time or they have been sleeping rough for a long time. We genuinely care, unlike this government who are all about flashy headline announcements.

Orange Sky is a charity that provides free laundry and conversation for people who are experiencing homelessness or hardship, and it is one that I have championed and lobbied for. These services are free and used by many who are finding it tough and have limited options. At the last election, only a few months ago, I, backed by the coalition, championed for a $30,000 grant to assist Orange Sky to move into upgraded facilities in Mackay. The funds are insignificant in government coffer terms, but are very significant for the people in my electorate. I've written to the Prime Minister to highlight this funding requirement and have asked for bipartisan support. I look forward to the government's response in backing this funding.

When the coalition was last in office, there were around 200,000 houses being built per year—almost entirely through private investment, mind you—and we were contending with much lower immigration figures. Under Labor, the number of private builds has fallen to around 170,000 per year, and it is still falling, not growing. It is not even coming close to keeping pace with population growth. To adjust supply and demand in housing it's simple—balance the number of people coming into the country with the pace at which accommodation can be built. But we have a new housing minister, who was the previous home affairs minister, working alongside the immigration minister, who is no longer the immigration minister—they allowed the floodgates to open and in they came. What a mess! I suggest the minister's next move might be into climate change and energy, because that's a right mess too.

What we see under Labor are immigration numbers soaring and promises being broken while housing supply stalls. They're piling up on demand without fixing supply. Labor's Housing Australia Future Fund is one of the biggest failures in the country's history at $10 billion of taxpayer's money. For how many houses? Nobody actually knows. Senators Wong and Gallagher have said they've acquired 2,000 homes. The government has purchased 2,000 homes. That's not helping supply but fuelling even more demand. Worse still, this isn't even an investment fund; it's a Ponzi scheme. Honestly, we'd get better returns at the track betting on No. 7. The money has gone in, and the country has paid the interest—for what return? The houses we need are not being built, and the fund value is shrinking. The money, along with the pipedream of 1.2 million homes in five years, is just disappearing. What a joke—an absolute joke.

Let's not forget inflation. The year to July CPI figures, which came out just last week, hit 2.8 per cent—a sharp rise of one per cent over the last month and the steepest increase since last year. My concern is, if inflation is rising again—because, let's be honest, the government does not have the economy under control—then the rate cuts that we're all hoping for won't materialise. So, if you already have a mortgage, look out. With inflation demand on the rise, it won't be long before interest rates jump up again. Where will that leave those new first home buyers who have just bought with only a five per cent deposit? Those with their big bright dreams—gone. By the way, the Australian taxpayer will be on the hook for any defaults, and more debt means either cuts to services or the creation of new taxes—probably both at the rate this government is going.

I'm glad to see the government has finally decided to put a freeze on the National Construction Code until 2029—a coalition policy that Labor rubbished at the election only a few months ago. Master Builders has also been calling for a freeze to take the handbrake off approvals and delays. The government has finally listened, albeit they did so kicking and screaming. They've had to hear from the economic roundtable before giving it the green light. But we can't just freeze it. We need to cut the mountain of paperwork that has found its way into every build under this government. Labor is choking builders with paperwork and regulation instead of giving them the freedom to build. And now Labor want to be mortgage brokers too. It's reckless and will end up hurting everyday Australians.

What we need to see is the value of houses rising steadily, not rapidly, so one can buy. We also don't want to see a situation where property values fall. We need a strategy and a policy that ensure that the ratio of what someone owns and what they need to buy a home keeps advancing at the same rate. Under this government, the housing market's supply and demand are way out of whack. The government's solutions are only good for one thing—warm and fuzzy headlines. The construction of new homes needs policy that will encourage. We need to cut the red tape for all government, and they need to get out of the road. We need to create an environment where people can, once again, aspire to homeownership. We need to get the supply and demand right, get the houses built and get a home for all Australians. Labor are playing with fire, and, when the government play with fire, there's a real chance the house will get burnt to the ground and all Australians will get burnt.

12:53 pm

Photo of Tim WattsTim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

My community in Melbourne's west are hard-working, aspirational Australians who want a good life for themselves, their children and their grandchildren. They're tradies, small business owners, shift workers. They're young people who dream of security and independence. They're parents who want their children to grow with stability and opportunity and for their children to be afforded the same opportunities that were afforded to them. People in my community are doing everything right. They work hard, they're saving diligently, and they're contributing to their families and their community. They still can't afford a place to call home. All the time, I hear from Australians who dream of owning their home but can't see a pathway to homeownership. I hear from renters whose rents increase as they struggle to save for the 20 per cent deposit needed to buy their first home. It all just feels out of reach.

A home is more than just a roof over your head. It's a place for family, where birthdays are celebrated, which kids take their first steps, where memories are made. For a generation of Australians, though, this homeownership has felt like a distant dream. On top of that, renters have felt insecure, with the scales tipped against them.

The Albanese Labor government is continuing to listen to young Australians, and we're continuing to deliver for them. We're delivering on our election promise to ease the housing crisis and help more Australians to own their own home. From 1 October, everyone in Melbourne's west and across Australia will be able to buy their first home with a five per cent deposit. It's a game changer. For many, this will mean the difference between continuing to rent indefinitely and stepping into homeownership. It will cut years off the time that it takes to save for a deposit. There are no income caps and no limits on the number of places. It means that more families, more young people and more single parents can access this support. We'll have house-price caps that reflect the cost of homes where you live, which means people won't be forced to look too far from their communities or their families to qualify. And, because the government will guarantee part of these mortgages, people won't have to pay tens of thousands of dollars in lenders mortgage insurance. In just the first year alone, first home buyers using the scheme are expected to avoid around $1.5 billion in potential mortgage insurance costs. We're also continuing the Family Home Guarantee, which helps single parents buy a home with a two per cent deposit. For first home buyers in Melbourne's west, I know this will make a real difference.

But expanding access to five per cent deposits to all first home buyers is just one plank of the Albanese government's Homes for Australia agenda. Since we first came to government, we've already seen 180,000 Australians get into homeownership with the Albanese Labor government's support. In my community alone, nearly 1,000 households have already participated in the Home Guarantee Scheme since we came to government in May 2022. That's a thousand families who now have a place to call their own and who have moved from renting to owning—from insecurity to stability. Under Labor, there have been 6,000 more first-home-buyer loans a year, compared to the coalition's previous period in office. Labor's shared-equity scheme, Help to Buy, will mean that the Commonwealth government pitches in up to 40 per cent of the upfront costs of a home, meaning first home buyers can purchase a home with a smaller mortgage.

We're not just helping people buy homes, though; we're building more homes too, and building more homes means more affordable homes for everyone. We've started the biggest housing build in Australia's history, investing $43 billion in housing in pursuit of an ambitious target of the construction of 1.2 million homes over the next five years. As part of our plan to build more homes, we're investing $10 billion to build 100,000 homes reserved for first home buyers.

Our investments in Australians' aspirations to own a home are complemented by our commitments to make renting more secure. We're working with states and territories to make renting fairer. We've built more rentals with stronger protections. We've passed legislation to help deliver 80,000 new rentals across the country, and all rentals under this scheme will have five-year leases, which will provide renters with more certainty and more security. We're working with the states and territories to implement stronger protections for tenants and to ensure that renters can make their rental their own. Because of our reforms, most states have implemented minimum standards for rental properties. Renters are now guaranteed a baseline standard for their rental property, which wasn't guaranteed before, to ensure that their rental is actually habitable. Our reforms have also meant that most states have now banned no-grounds evictions. Stamping out no-grounds evictions provides renters with more certainty, stability and security. It also allows renters to establish a more stable home and better plan for the future of themselves and their families. We've delivered a 45 per cent increase in Commonwealth rental assistance, helping one million low-income Australians to pay the rent.

We're delivering 55,000 social and affordable rental homes for the Australians that need them the most. Through programs like the Housing Australia Future Fund, we're reducing the social housing waiting list and delivering homes for vulnerable women, children, veterans and key workers. We're investing $1.2 billion in building new crisis and transitional accommodation. This investment will ensure at-risk groups like women, younger Australians and those fleeing domestic violence have access to safe and stable housing.

Building more homes and supporting renters wouldn't be possible if we didn't invest in the people we need to build these homes. We're training more tradies through our fee-free TAFE program. The fee-free construction program will boost the number of skilled workers in the construction and housing sector. This will ensure that Australia has the skilled workers to build the houses that we need. We're providing $10,000 incentive payments to apprentices in construction. We're investing $78 million to fast-track qualifications of 6,000 tradies, to help build more homes across Australia. The Advanced Entry Trades Training program will help experienced but unqualified workers get the qualifications and recognition they deserve for their work. The program will assess participants' skills by a recognition-of-prior-learning process and then fill in any gaps with individualised training delivered by TAFEs and other high-quality registered training organisations. The best bit is that if they need extra training, it will be free.

We're also cutting red tape with our planning reforms. We're providing $120 million from the National Productivity Fund to incentivise states to remove red tape to help build houses faster, and we're leading efforts to speed up construction. We're delivering $54 million in investment in advanced manufacturing of prefab and modular homes. The Albanese Labor government is building new homes, supporting renters, ensuring we have a skilled workforce for our housing agenda, and cutting red tape. We're tackling this housing crisis from every angle.

But, unfortunately, this crisis wasn't created overnight, and that means that it won't be fixed overnight. The crisis we're currently experiencing is a result of decades of underinvestment and neglect. We're working hard to undo this decade of neglect by the coalition, who didn't even have a housing minister for most of their time in office. As my colleague, Minister O'Neil, told parliament last week, they built just 373 social and affordable homes in nine years. If that wasn't bad enough, they continue to oppose homeownership for Australians. They voted against Help to Buy; in fact, they promised to abolish the scheme entirely. They didn't support our policy to deliver 100,000 homes for first home buyers. Bizarrely, they are now trying to scrap 80,000 new rentals by raising taxes on builders. It's as if they've completely given up. On this side of the House, we haven't.

Owning a home is a dream that should be available to all Australians—not just some. We're making that dream more achievable. The Albanese Labor government was elected with a clear mandate to support the aspirations and dreams of all Australians. From 1 October, the days of 20 per cent deposits for first home buyers are over. We're bringing the dream of homeownership within reach of everyone in my community of Melbourne's west and across Australia. It's not just a policy change. It's a change which will support Australians to achieve their goals and dreams.

We're removing barriers which hold Australians back from homeownership. We're building more rentals with stronger protections, and we're delivering more social and affordable homes for vulnerable Australians. We're working with states and territories to make renting fairer, and we're boosting rent assistance. We're offering a clear, fair pathway to homeownership for all Australians. We are investing in the future of housing. We're speeding up construction. We're investing in the workforce we need to build new homes, and we're fast-tracking the qualifications of experienced but unqualified tradies.

This housing crisis has been decades in the making, but last weeks announcement of five per cent deposits for first home buyers is another plank in our Homes for Australia plan, a comprehensive plan that tackles every dimension of this crisis.

1:03 pm

Julie-Ann Campbell (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

When I was growing up, the phrase 'the Australian dream' meant something, and it meant something to everyone; it was understood. It meant owning your own home. The Australian dream conjured up pictures of a house on a quarter-acre block with, perhaps, a hills hoist in the background and some kids and a dog running underneath a sprinkler on a hot summer day.

Owning a home was a symbol of success, and it became part of our national identity. The Australian dream, at that time, was both aspirational and achievable. These days, the phrase 'the Australian dream' has evolved to encompass other facets of what it means to be Australian. What hasn't changed, however, is the need to have a safe and stable place to call home. Right now, that's tough because housing is hard across our country. It's hard in my community. Housing is hard whether you're looking to buy your very first home or you're looking to rent for your family.

The realities of the housing market mean that there are barriers in the way of home ownership for many Australians. Owning your own home has become a life-defining challenge for many. Despite hard work and diligent saving, many people cannot afford to buy their own home. Labor wants a generation of Australians who feel left behind on housing to have the benefits and security that having your own home brings. It's the foundation of the extensive work this government is doing in supporting Australians to get into homes of their own. Australia's housing crisis wasn't created overnight, and it wasn't created in the last three years. It's been gathering momentum for 40 years, when not enough houses were being built. Then it took a decade of neglect from those opposite to really solidify it.

In the suburbs of Moreton, I've spoken to young people who are concerned that they will never be able to afford to buy a home of their own. They've spoken to me about teaming up to buy a house. I've listened to gen Xers who are worried that their kids won't know financial security in their lifetimes and who can't afford to help out and get them a foothold in the property market. I've seen the pressure pile onto renters as they struggle to both find a place to live and afford increasing rent costs. I've spoken to community groups who are supporting rising numbers of people experiencing homelessness. Fixing this mess will take time—anyone who tells you it can be fixed overnight is being disingenuous—but we have to start now, and we have to go hard if we're going to make a difference. That's why the Albanese Labor government is taking unprecedented steps to resolve it with an ambitious and multifaceted approach. Our $43 billion agenda is focused on three main drivers: firstly, building more homes; secondly, making it better to rent; and thirdly, making it easier to buy.

The page in front of me says that the coalition have no ideas when it comes to solving the housing crisis, but I don't actually think that's true. I think the coalition do have ideas when it comes to solving the housing crisis, and we know what those ideas are because the coalition put forward a proposal that the way to solve the housing crisis is to raid your super—to take from the money set aside for people's futures and use it to fix a housing crisis that they were instrumental in causing. What we now know about raiding your super is that it has monumental impacts on young people's futures, because we know that not only does it have the potential to cripple people's nest eggs; the vast majority of economists have said that it simply won't work and will place enormous inflationary pressure on the system. That is what the coalition's solution is to fixing a housing crisis. For most of the decade of neglect, they didn't even have a housing minister. Their contribution to the housing pool was a total of 373 social and affordable homes. That's an average of 41 houses built per year. Their lack of interest didn't change during the last parliament, and, in fact, they put all of their energy into teaming up with the Greens political party to block Labor's housing initiatives. They voted against Help to Buy, and they promised to abolish the scheme.

It doesn't look like things have changed much this term. They are simply not interested in supporting first home buyers to turn their dreams into a reality. The shadow housing minister described Labor's five per cent deposit announcement as 'bizarre and ridiculous', laying bare their contempt for young battling Australians. The only thing that's bizarre and ridiculous when it comes to housing is the fact that those opposite have continually failed to act and have continually neglected to take action when it comes to putting supports in place and giving the support needed for young people to get into their first homes, for families to get into their first homes and for people who are struggling to rent.

The headline news about housing last week was that the Albanese government has moved to help first home buyers get a home of their own faster. We have moved our plan forward by three months so that first home buyers can buy a home with a five per cent deposit from 1 October this year. The scheme will be uncapped so that every first home buyer can access its benefits. There are no income limits and no limits on places. We are increasing property price caps so that they are in line with average house prices, and this increase broadens the scope from small apartments, units or homes a long way from where people work.

The benefits speak for themselves. A five per cent deposit slashes years off the time required to save for a deposit. It will save prospective buyers thousands of dollars in lenders mortgage insurance, not to mention rental payments, whilst saving. We want people to be able to spend their hard earned dollars not on someone else's mortgage but on their own. We're backing the five per cent deposit scheme because we know it works, and, on average, there are 6,000 more first-home-buyer loans a year under this government, in comparison with the former government.

Housing Australia tells us that over 230,000 Australians have already bought their first home because they've accessed the scheme. I'm excited to see how much this number grows now that eligibility has been expanded. We've supported one million households with nearly 50 per cent rent assistance increases. Since May 2022, new housing approvals are up by 30 per cent, and half a million homes have been built. There are 28,000 social and affordable homes in the planning and construction phases.

As the Minister for Housing said, we know the long-term solution to address the housing crisis in our country is to build, build, build. Labor's comprehensive approach to this involves funding the development of infrastructure needed for housing—those are the roads, that's the sewerage, that's the energy and those are the water connections needed for new developments and more social housing.

Labor is training the workforce for this for free, with more free TAFE places in the construction industry so we can train the tradies that we need to build these homes. In my local electorate of Moreton on Brisbane's south side, we are the proud home to the largest trade-training centre in the entirety of the Southern Hemisphere. This is not only a place where people will have access to free TAFE but also a place where people will build those homes of the future and get the skills they need to be able to do so.

The government is also focused on cutting the red tape that can cause delays in building houses. Participants in Labor's recent Economic Reform Roundtable were in broad agreement that the regulatory burden on builders needs to be decreased. This will be a fundamentally life-changing reform for prospective first home buyers. We know it's tough; we know we need to take action. That's why Labor is throwing the kitchen sink at the housing crisis. Labor are the only ones who can invest in the means for young people, for families— (Time expired)

1:13 pm

Photo of Sharon ClaydonSharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I am honoured to be able to speak to this issue in strong support of the expansion of the five per cent deposit scheme—a practical, commonsense initiative that will make a real difference for Australians who have been locked out of the housing market. This scheme is, essentially, about fairness. It's about giving Australians—hardworking nurses, teachers, police officers, hospitality workers—a genuine shot at the great Australian dream of homeownership. For too many people, that dream has felt out of reach.

Let's be honest. Saving a 20 per cent deposit in today's housing market is simply impossible for many Australians, particularly young people and families who are trying to buy that first home. In Newcastle the median house price is around $900,000. That means a 20 per cent deposit is $180,000—that's before we've even factored in stamp duty and other associated costs. How many people can realistically save that kind of money while paying rent, covering living costs and trying to get ahead? The answer is: not many.

That's why this scheme is such a game changer. Under the current scheme, eligible first home buyers can purchase a home with as little as a five per cent deposit without having to fork out for costly lender's mortgage insurance. That's thousands of dollars saved upfront—money that stays in the pockets of people instead of going to the banks or insurers. It's a practical way to help first home buyers enter the market sooner and with less financial stress. Importantly, it's targeted to those who need it most: Australians who have the income to service a mortgage but simply can't break through the barrier of saving for that massive deposit.

With this expansion of the scheme, all first home buyers will now have access, with no caps on places or income limits. Property price caps will also rise in line with average house prices, providing access to a greater variety of homes. It means a first home buyer in Newcastle can purchase a $900,000 home with a $45,000 deposit. They could save up to 10 years off the time it takes to save for a deposit, save about $40,000 in mortgage insurance and pay up to $345,000 towards their loan instead of paying rent. In the first year alone, first home buyers using the scheme are expected to avoid around $1.5 billion in potential mortgage insurance costs. This is about breaking down those barriers, giving people not a handout but a leg up, so they can take control of their future and build wealth for themselves and their families. In Newcastle, this means more young couples, more single parents and more key workers will be able to buy a home in the community they love, close to their families and close to their work. And that matters.

This scheme is just one part of Labor's comprehensive plan to tackle Australia's housing crisis. We know there is no silver bullet, and that's why, through our $43 billion Homes for Australia program, we're investing right across the housing spectrum, from emergency accommodation to social housing, and from affordable rentals to home ownership. Through the Housing Australia Future Fund, we're building 30,000 new social and affordable homes. That's the single biggest investment in social and affordable housing in more than a decade. We've boosted funding for homelessness services and increased rent assistance to help those who are doing it tough right now. And we've struck the National Housing Accord, an agreement between all levels of government, investors and the construction sector, to deliver 1.2 million well located homes over the next five years. These are serious reform measures. They're big, ambitious policies that will deliver real results, and they're backed by billions of dollars in investments from the Albanese Labor government.

But here's the truth: every step of the way, the Liberals and the Greens have tried to stop this. They blocked the Housing Australia Future Fund for months, playing politics while Australians struggled to keep a roof over their head. They delayed critical funding for social and affordable housing, because they wanted to grandstand instead of government. The Greens talked a big game on housing, but, when they had the chance to vote for more homes, they voted against it. They voted against $10 billion for social and affordable housing. That's 30,000 homes that they tried to block. And the Liberals—well, they spent a decade doing absolutely nothing on housing. They left a legacy of neglect, and that's what we are working hard to fix now. Australians deserve better than this. They deserve a government that rolls up its sleeves and gets things done, and that is exactly what Labor is doing.

The five per cent deposit scheme is proof of what we can achieve when we focus on those practical solutions. Already, Australians have used this scheme to buy their first home, and we are going further, expanding eligibility so even more people get to benefit. In Newcastle, more than 1,000 people have gotten the keys to their new homes so far. That's more families getting a start in the market. It's more young people being able to stay in the region they love. It means stronger, more vibrant communities. This is real action making a real difference right now. Owning your own home shouldn't be a privilege reserved for a few. It should be an achievable aspiration for anyone who works hard and plays by the rules. The five per cent deposit scheme is helping make that aspiration a reality. It's giving hope and opportunity to thousands of Australians, and it's part of Labor's bigger plan to fix housing in this country.

While others talk, Labor acts. While others block and delay, Labor builds. We build homes, we build communities, we build a better future, and we will keep doing that because every Australian deserves the security, stability and dignity of a place to call home.

Debate adjourned.