Cameron Caldwell (Fadden, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) acknowledges that the Government has made Australia's housing crisis worse than ever by:

(a) overseeing a historic collapse of housing construction, with the last financial year seeing less homes built than at any other time during this Government;

(b) expanding the 5 per cent deposit scheme from a sensible and targeted approach, to an uncapped and non-means tested, free-for-all which will push up prices and expose first home buyers to larger mortgages;

(c) creating the failing Housing Australia Future Fund which is buying houses from Australians, not building houses for Australians; and

(d) allowing the criminal and corrupt Construction, Forestry, and Maritime Employees Union to run rampant across Australian residential building sites, pushing up apartment prices by up to 30 per cent; and

(2) notes that:

(a) the Government continues to keep a $24,000 report into poor governance at Housing Australia secret; and

(b) leaked advice from the Department of the Treasury states that the Government will fail to reach its National Housing Accord target of 1.2 million homes by 2029.

The longer you're in this place, the more time you have to reflect. In preparation for my speech today, I reviewed my maiden speech that I gave in this place on 4 September 2023. I want to read part of that speech. I said:

I was fortunate enough to buy my first property during the time of the Howard government, but I fear that the great Australian dream is being snatched away. We must strive, as a nation, to increase homeownership. There is no better way to illustrate the collective ambition of our nation to have individual freedom and responsibility than to have people own their own home. Give as many people as possible the opportunity to have a stake in our nation.

Just over two years on, I reflect on those words and think that that sentiment about homeownership and the opportunities that should be presented to Australians are more important now than ever. Australians should ask themselves, 'Who is the better custodian of housing in Australia—a coalition who genuinely believes in the Australian dream or the Labor Party, who, for the last four years, has had a track record of failed policy, fewer homes, higher mortgages and higher rents?' Sadly, under Labor, the great Australian dream is turning into a nightmare. Minister O'Neil was hapless in home affairs, but she is hopeless with homes.

The first plank of their failing plan is to blame everyone else. They're now framing the housing crisis as, 'forty years in the making,' when, in fact, it's only been the last four, under this Labor government. Its policy is taglines that fit on a corflute but nothing more. Labor's centrepiece, the Housing Australia Future Fund is now under a formal performance audit by the Auditor-General into its design and delivery. When the Auditor-General steps in, you know something has gone badly wrong. In addition, in the last couple of weeks, the chair of Housing Australia has resigned, and Labor has continued to keep secret a $24,000 report into poor governance and wide-ranging issues at Housing Australia.

Labor promised 1.2 million new homes in Australia over a five-year period, but Treasury and industry experts have confirmed that they are likely to fall 400,000 homes short of this target. By the end of today, that target will have slipped by another 220 homes. Just this week, they will have fallen another 1,500 homes short of their target—all this failure is while presiding over one of the biggest population surges Australia has had in decades.

The second plank of their failed policy seems to be to spend more and get less. This motion speaks to a pattern we see today that Labor has spent more than ever to build fewer homes than under the last coalition government. New Parliamentary Library analysis shows almost $60 billion in headline and off-budget housing spend, for fewer homes than were previously delivered under the coalition. Completions are falling year on year despite the cash splash. That is the definition of policy failure.

One of the things that Labor doesn't actually like to talk about is the impact on homelessness, because when there's a housing crisis it hurts everyone. Frontline services report the worst in living memory for homelessness. Monthly service demand is up 10 per cent since 2022—14 per cent for women and girls.

The third plank now, based on the minister's social media this week, is that she's backing in hard the Premier's plan in Victoria. The Jacinta Allan led Labor government now is going to provide the solution to housing in her home state. That shows the lack of judgement that this minister has exercised since she was appointed.

Marion Scrymgour (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is there a seconder for the motion?

Leon Rebello (McPherson, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

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

I've got news for the member for Fadden, because, when the member for Fadden talks about the fact that the great Australian dream is being snatched away, those doing the snatching are sitting right opposite. Those doing the snatching are those in the coalition. Those opposite are the ones who have turned that Australian dream into a nightmare. The member for Fadden has to take a cold, hard look at what the coalition has done when it comes to housing. Not only have we seen decades and decades of neglect when it comes to investment in housing, but we've also seen a coalition who talk a big game, bring something to the chamber and then can't look themselves in the eye to see what they've done when it comes to housing policy.

Let's have a look at what we've seen from this coalition not just over a couple of years but over many, many years. In their nine years in government, what did we see? Three hundred and seventy-three homes built in nine years. That is part of not an Australian dream but an Australian nightmare. What did we see? We saw that they didn't even have a housing minister for most of the time that they were in government. That is not part of an Australian dream; that is part of a coalition nightmare. We saw them fail to support free TAFE, and free TAFE is about making sure not only that our young people have cost-of-living relief but also that we are building the trades and skills of the future that we need to build those homes. Failing to support that is not the Australian dream; it is a coalition nightmare.

So, when the member for Fadden gets up here and talks about housing, what we know is that they talk a big game but that when it comes to housing—when it comes to actually fixing the fundamental challenge, which is supply—they have never done anything to make a real difference. In fact, when we look at what the coalition's track record is on housing, we see that it has only ever acted to make housing less affordable—less affordable for the young people in my electorate who are worried that they will never own a home, and less affordable for those parents with adult children who are worried that the kids will not be able to get that Australian dream and build a future with a home.

On 31 October, just a few days ago, one of the members of my local team, Kane, and his partner, Jaxen, bought their first home, and do you know how they bought their first home? They put down a five per cent deposit. Within one month of a Labor policy coming to fruition to allow first home owners to put down a five per cent deposit to own their own home, they were able to do that. Kane and Jaxen were like many other young people who had been scrimping and saving to put together that 20 per cent, and they couldn't do it, but then Labor introduced a five per cent deposit for first home buyers. That is the difference when we talk about what we've seen from across the chamber and what we've seen from Labor.

Home is symbolic of security, it's symbolic of safety and it's symbolic of stability, but it's also something very tangible. It's the Colorbond roof on the bricks and mortar or the VJs of an old Queenslander. Home is important because it helps us build for the future; it helps us plan. We talk about five per cent deposits. What five per cent deposits do is get people into their first homes. Five per cent deposits also mean people are not contributing to someone else's mortgage; they're contributing to their own.

What have we seen when it comes to Labor? We've seen half a million homes built since Labor was elected, compared to a measly 373 homes over nine years from those opposite. And we are on our way to delivering 1.2 million homes, an ambitious target that will help make houses more affordable. We've seen the future fund delivering more than 55,000 social and affordable homes. We are training more tradies who have the skills to build more homes. The member for Fadden talks about being passionate about that great Australian dream. If he want to do something, if he wants to deliver on housing affordability, he better come over to this side of the chamber, because that's where the business gets done.

Leon Rebello (McPherson, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support this motion because the Australian dream of homeownership is slipping further out of reach under this government. Labor's appalling housing failures are all the proof you need to see that they have no idea what they're doing on housing or the economy more broadly. Labor talk a big game on housing, but the reality is that their backwards policies are in fact taking away from supply and driving up property prices, further disadvantaging first home buyers.

In just three years, the government has presided over the biggest boom in Australia's population since the 1950s while overseeing an historic housing construction collapse. Despite their $60 billion housing investment, they're spending more than ever to deliver fewer homes than the previous coalition government. Labor's flagship housing policy, the Housing Australia Future Fund, is one of the greatest public policy failures of our time. Ten billion dollars of taxpayer money is tied up in a fund, yet no member of the government was willing or able to tell us how many homes it's actually built. At Senate estimates, we discovered that Labor is not even building homes; they're buying homes. You can't make this up. The government is competing with its own people to buy up existing supply, driving up prices. Australians don't need their government bidding against them at weekend auctions; they need their government building more homes.

Nearly $60 billion of taxpayer money has been poured into housing schemes that are failing to deliver results. Labor are spending more, building less and blaming everybody but themselves. Labor know the key to increasing housing supply is through deregulating the industry, but instead they bow down to their union mates to pile on 5,000 new regulations and 400 new laws—nearly 3,000 pages of construction codes. They smother builders in paperwork and then wonder why fewer homes are being built. We've seen an historic collapse in building completion, with close to 200,000 homes built each year under the coalition compared to the barely 170,000 today under Labor. At the same time as construction has fallen, Labor has presided over the biggest population surge since the 1950s, driving up demand while strangling supply through red tape and poor policy design. What's the result? Families in my electorate are paying more, they're waiting longer and they're falling further behind.

As the housing crisis deepens, the minister hides a $24,000 report into bullying and mismanagement at Housing Australia, one that Treasury admits exists but refuses to release. This is a government that's addicted to secrecy, allergic to accountability and incapable of delivery.

Labor's reckless expansion of the Home Guarantee Scheme is another example of good intentions, bad economics and worse governance. The coalition created this scheme to help low-income Australians with small deposits. It was a targeted, sensible policy. Labor has turned it into a $60 billion uncapped, non-means-tested, free-for-all system not targeted to those who need it. The Reserve Bank governor has already confirmed the obvious. This will push up house prices and leave first home buyers with larger mortgages. Labor's policy helps no-one except the banks, the unions and super funds all lining up for a share of taxpayer backed housing debt.

No discussion of housing under this government can ignore the elephant on the building site: the criminal and corrupt CFMEU. This union has been allowed to run rampant across construction sites, driving up apartment prices by as much as 30 per cent. It's unconscionable that taxpayer money is being funnelled through this fund to enrich the same union whose conduct has driven so many builders to the wall. The coalition's bill before the Senate would ban the HAFF investments tied to the CFMEU's financial arms. If Labor were serious about integrity and housing, they would support it.

For generations, Australians have believed that if you worked hard, saved carefully and contributed to your community you could own a home and, therefore, a stake in your economy and your country. But that social contract is breaking. Instead of enabling Australians to build their own future, Labor continues to fuel dependency. We must restore government as an enabler not a provider, a partner in people's ambition not a replacement for it. We must restore the great Australian dream of homeownership, because a government that cannot house its people is a government that has lost its way.

Jerome Laxale (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Whenever we talk about housing, we need to acknowledge a few things. One is that this is a housing crisis generations in the making. It didn't start in 2022 when the Albanese Labor government was elected. This has been going on for decades because, for decades, we've had poor housing policy by all levels of government and, for decades, this country simply hasn't built enough homes. People in my community and across the country are doing everything right. They're working hard, they're saving but they're still finding it hard to afford to rent a home in many circumstances and even harder to buy a home. The queues in my community for rental properties are staggering. That's not because the Albanese Labor government was elected, and that's not when it started. That's because there haven't been enough homes built in the cities and the regions for decades. Young people feel like they'll never be able to own a home, let alone find an affordable home to rent. Parents tell me that they struggle to give their kids the same stability they had, and that all comes down to housing. That all comes down to successive local, state and federal governments that have not built enough homes.

One of the main reasons I decided to run for federal government was, after a decade in local government, I knew we needed a federal government that took action on housing, didn't just talk about it like those opposite—not like those opposite who didn't have a housing minister for half of the time in their last term of government. I wanted to be part of a federal government that took ownership of this problem and had policies to help deliver on it.

Now, at two elections, we've been elected with policies to attack this challenge that we face, because you can't just keep on turning up to this place and talking about it; we actually have to do things about it, and that's what this government is doing. We've allocated $43 billion to date to deal with this generations-old problem. It's built on three pillars. We want to make it easier to buy a home, we want to make it better to rent a home and we need to build more homes.

Now, if you listen to member for Fadden and the member for McPherson, there's no ownership of their contribution to this crisis. They're just sitting here slinging mud, throwing out acronyms and blaming some report or this other report. There are no solutions in their sprays. For nine long years, they did nothing. They didn't take ownership of the housing crisis, and, in fact, they made it worse. In their nine years, 373 social and affordable homes were built. That's it. Not per year, not per month or week—in the entire nine years, that's all they built. They walked away from the housing challenge.

During the pandemic, when industry experts were saying we should boost our economy by funding the construction of more housing, they came up with a policy to fund renovations for people who already owned homes—ignored experts who were saying, 'Build more social housing during the pandemic; it'll help our economy and it'll help solve the crisis.' They did nothing.

The opposite can be said of this government: real delivery. We've set the really ambitious target of 1.2 million homes. We're delivering 55,000 social and affordable homes through the Housing Australia Future Fund. Those opposite say it's not working, but it is, and I'll give you an example in my electorate. Link Wentworth housing were going to build around 150 apartments. Before the Housing Australia Future Fund, half of that was going to be social homes and half was going to market, because that's the only way they could make it stack up. With the Housing Australia Future Fund—a signed agreement—now it'll be half social homes and half affordable homes. By removing the need to have that private market housing to fund the construction—the HAFF will help them top it up—we'll have more affordable homes in Bennelong because of the Housing Australia Future Fund. There'll be more than 1,000 Build to Rent properties that are currently under planning or construction—just in my electorate, let alone across the rest of the country—all because of policies that those opposite not only voted against but are now complaining are not delivering when they are. Instead of whingeing, we're getting on with the job, and we'll keep on doing it.

Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bennelong, and I agree with him: we shouldn't be whingeing; we should be working. But not whingeing does not mean not having a decent critique, either. In my electorate of Indi, housing pressures continue to be one of the most pressing and commonly brought issues that come to my office. Homeowners continue to feel the pressure of interest rates and the high cost of living. Renters struggle to imagine homeownership at all, with vacancy rates critically low and rents continuing to rise. When it comes to social housing, thousands of people remain on wait lists in towns like Wodonga, Wangaratta and Benalla. Homelessness is at rates we have never seen before in rural and regional Australia.

There is no doubt that there is so much more to be done to make housing affordable and accessible in Australia. However, while the motion before the House points to failure, I'm determined to, as I said, focus on solutions—and solutions that work for the people I represent in rural and regional Australia. I'm not here just to describe a problem. That is why, since 2022, I've called for a $2 billion regional housing infrastructure fund to help local councils build the pipes, the pavements and the poles that unlock new housing. It's not glamorous, but it works. When you fund sewerage, water and roads, you turn zoned but vacant land into build-ready land. That's how you add supply in regional Australia, because regional Australia needs solutions that focus on specific regional needs.

You don't have to look far in my electorate of Indi to see the reality of infrastructure constraints. In Tawonga, new developments are paused because there simply isn't enough water capacity in town. In Benalla, millions of dollars worth of drainage works are required before further homes can be built. Of course, we need to be mindful of how we build and where we build, but without greater investment in critical infrastructure there will be little new housing. We have to have critical investment in infrastructure.

Regional councils can't afford this infrastructure alone. This is where the Commonwealth needs to step in more if we're to make real progress on the housing crisis in regional communities. So I welcomed the government's announcement of the $500 million Housing Support Program in August 2023. It's exactly what I was calling for. It was a good start, but it didn't land where it needed to, in specifically targeting regional Australia. The coalition committed $5 billion to enabling infrastructure during the recent election, and I hope that as the member for Fadden and his colleagues continue to work through their policy review they hang on to this one.

We're also now a couple of years past the creation of the government's flagship housing policy, the Housing Australia Future Fund . I worked constructively on that legislation and secured amendments to put regional voices on the record. I also sought to guarantee a fair share of funding for regional Australia. While the government would not back those improvements, I'm going to keep pushing them for stronger, targeted regional funding. Unfortunately, the jury is still out on the HAFF. For most Australians, it is unclear how this $10 billion policy has delivered and what it will deliver. It's not clear how communities in my electorate have benefitted or will benefit. If the government wants ongoing support for its HAFF, it's going to need to do a whole lot more to communicate how and where it's making a difference. If the HAFF doesn't start making serious progress, we have little chance of meeting the government's target of 1.2 million homes by 2030. Ambition is well and good, but it's getting investment into the regions, where funding is desperately needed, that will make a difference. The path is not to abandon or undermine the target, as the opposition seeks to do, but to do everything we can to meet it.

So what needs to change for regional Australia? First, establish a regional housing infrastructure fund. Open it to local governments to co-fund the infrastructure that makes developments viable at scale. Second, ensure that 30 per cent of housing funding flows to the regions, because that's where 30 per cent of the people live. Third, we should require Housing Australia and its investment mandate to explicitly recognise enabling infrastructure as an eligible activity. The housing crisis does not stop at the limits of Sydney or Melbourne. In Indi, the housing crisis makes it harder for health services to recruit, for farmers to find workers and for families to find somewhere to call home. We can change that if we stop treating the regions as an afterthought. We need to centre regional housing and investment in the critical infrastructure that's holding back new homes right now across rural and regional Australia.

Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The great Australian dream has traditionally been to own your own home. That is the dream of every young person who's just finishing school and who's starting work to get a deposit together and buy themselves a house. And there's no doubt that there is a housing crisis and a housing problem that we're facing, and this government is doing all it can to overcome that challenge. But that's not to say that this problem began in May 2022, when Labor came to this side of the House and formed government. This has been an ongoing issue for many years. I recall the debates mainly tailored around homelessness in the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison years and even in the Howard years. We know for a fact that traditionally, by the coalition side, it was to handball it to the states. I remember many questions being asked in this place by the then Labor opposition. I recall the answers from this side of the House from the coalition government of the time, wiping their hands clean of housing and saying, 'This is solely an issue for the states to combat.'

In my home state of South Australia, in 1993, when the Brown-Olsen Liberal government came to power, right through to 2002, when the Rann Labor government came to power, 10,000 public housing, houses and housing stock was sold off—10,000! You don't rip out a massive hole of 10,000 homes without creating some form of problem. I don't know what it was like in other states, but I can tell you that was the case.

As I said, there is no doubt there is a housing problem. All of us in this place, as we go doorknocking, speak to people in forums et cetera, know that it's harder for young people to buy a home. I also hear from young people themselves who apply for the rental properties with dozens of other people competing for that very same property. And it's not just young Australians. Families with kids are worried that, as rents go up, they may be forced to move at the whim of a landlord, and they feel bad that they can't give their child the stability they enjoyed as children.

On this side of the House, we understand profoundly how upsetting it is for families, as opposed to the others, who for nine wasted years only built 373 affordable homes over that entire period. During this term of parliament, they've continued to show that they don't understand what needs to be done. Only last week in the other place they tried to completely scrap the Commonwealth housing agenda. They tried to scrap five per cent deposits for first home buyers; they tried to scrap the Help to Buy program, helping the people who need it most; they also tried to scrap the social and affordable homes we're already delivering, thanks to the Housing Australia Future Fund.

We know that the long-term fix for housing is to build more homes. We know that we have to build more homes and we have to encourage everything from private enterprise to governments to absolutely build those homes. We on this side have an ambitious national target. We're determined, together with the states and the territories, to build 1.2 million new homes. That's the only way we can solve this housing crisis. We need more stock, and we need to work in partnership with all levels of government—local government and state governments—and the private sector to get those homes built.

In South Australia, a former colleague from this House, the Hon. Nick Champion, is their Minister for Housing and Urban Development, the Minister for Housing Infrastructure and also the Minister for Planning. Combining these portfolios under one minister makes perfect sense. We, the federal government, have been working very closely with the South Australian state government. In my electorate of Adelaide, I've been pleased to join the minister on a number of occasions to launch projects such as UnitingSA's Uniting on Second, in Renewal SA's Bowden Precinct, creating and providing more affordable homes.

More than half a million homes have been built nationwide since Labor were elected. We're delivering 55,000 social and affordable homes, thanks to programs like the HAFF that the opposition have tried to tear down. We have a plan to make it easier: lower deposits, through our five per cent deposit scheme; smaller mortgages for 40,000 Australians, through Help to Buy; and a $10 billion investment into 100,000 homes. (Time expired)

Ben Small (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's interesting to hear the member opposite reflect on his experience in South Australia, because mine, coming from the great state of Western Australia, couldn't be more different. Some nine years after the Labor Party came to government in WA, there are now fewer social homes in that state than there were when the coalition last left office in 2017. The honourable member reflected on targets, ambitions and aspirations, and it seems to be a recurrent theme, whether it's in housing or emissions, that we talk a big game but that the reality experienced by Australians is a sad miss on that high bar.

We, on this side of the House, as Liberals, want this country to be a country of homeownership—not because it should be easy, but because, if you do the right thing, if you work hard and save to build a better future for your family, then you, too, should be able to join the league of homeownership in this country. Of course, there are circumstances in which it suits a particular person at that phase of their life to rent or to board with family, friends or someone else. But the reality is that the market for housing in Australia has been distorted by the Labor Party spending more taxpayer money than ever before, and, at the same time, we're achieving worse outcomes in housing than ever before. The simple reality is that—and the Parliamentary Library has belled the cat—some $60 billion has been shovelled out the door by the Labor government; that's $23 billion in the budget, but of course some $34.4 billion has been just quietly snuck off to the side of the budget.

That is at a time when there are fewer homes being built in this country than under the previous coalition government, because we understand that you have to back the private sector to do what it does well. You have to get out of the way of developers—whether they be mums and dads looking to earn a little bit more through a side-hustle, all the way through to our biggest developers—to ensure that the supply of housing meets demand. That's the supply side, of course.

The reality is that this government has also overseen a record surge in demand for housing through net overseas migration. I note that, in this debate today, those on the government benches have studiously avoided talking about the other side of the equation. This is a market. It's supply and demand. You can't tackle one side and completely ignore the other. But the reality is, as I say, there's more money going out the door, more people coming to this country and fewer homes being built, and yet they wonder why house prices are through the roof and rents aren't far behind. In just three years, their first term, the government has presided over the biggest boom in Australia's population since the end of the Second World War. At the same time, the housing industry in Australia has delivered fewer homes.

So, as I say, it is no wonder that we have a very serious problem. But it shouldn't come as a galloping shock to those opposite, because Treasury gave them the advice that said that they would fail to meet their own aspirational target of some 1.2 million new homes by 2029. Since Labor came to power, not only have they had their own Treasury telling them that they're not going to meet this, we've seen building construction prices up by 20 per cent; homelessness getting worse, not better; and the lawlessness, thuggery, intimidation and rorts perpetrated by the CFMEU getting worse, not better, because of course one of the first things they did was to bin the ABCC. So we took away the cop on the beat trying to keep the construction industry clean. We've had record migration. We've had a collapse in the supply of new housing. Yet, still, we hear all this talk about aspiration, ambition and doing more than ever.

The reality is that Australians don't sleep at night under a roof of hot air from this government. They need a home to live in.

The coalition is a party that believes in homeownership because the home can be a cornerstone for a family and its place in the world and of course a platform from which we can raise kids and send them off into the world. Yet the reality is that, in my electorate of Forrest, I keep hearing about people with jobs and kids who are forced to live in cars in car parks. It is a shame on this government.

Sarah Witty (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about Australia's housing crisis and the action this government is taking to combat it. We are building more homes, supporting renters and investing in social and affordable housing at a scale not seen in decades. This progress is making a real difference in everyday lives, because every house built by this government is proof that progress is not just possible, it is happening.

That progress matters, because housing is now a life-defining challenge for so many Australians. People are working hard and doing everything right. Still, they have not been able to find a place to call home. Young people line up around the block for rental inspections. Families who once would have owned a home now find themselves in long-term rentals. Parents tell me that they cannot give their children the stable home that they grew up in.

The Albanese Labor government understands how hard this is. We have a $43 billion housing agenda that is tackling the crisis from every angle. The Commonwealth is no longer a bystander in this challenge, and we are the most ambitious government on housing since the post-war period.

At the centre of this work is building more homes. More homes mean more affordability for everyone. Through the National Housing Accord, we are working with the states and territories, councils and industry. The goal is 1.2 million new homes by 2029. We are cutting red tape, training more tradies and delivering the infrastructure to unlock supply. The Albanese government is directly supporting the delivery of 55,000 social and affordable homes. The Housing Australia Future Fund, the HAFF, is driving that work. It is funding homes for people who have been locked out of the market through no fault of their own. It supports the nurses, teachers and key workers who hold our community together, helping them live near the people they care for and close to the places where their work changes lives. In Victoria, federal investment supports the Big Housing Build, and, in my electorate of Melbourne, projects in Carlton and Fitzroy are replacing outdated housing with modern, secure homes.

Labor is backing homebuyers. The five per cent deposit scheme began on 1 October. It was delivered months ahead of schedule, and now first home buyers are cutting years off the time it takes to save a deposit and avoiding paying mortgage insurance. We are also rolling out Help to Buy to help low- and middle-income earners purchase a home with a smaller deposit and a smaller mortgage. The government has delivered the largest increase to Commonwealth rent assistance in 30 years, a rise of more than 40 per cent since returning to government in 2022. This is real relief for more than half-a-million households.

Social and affordable housing is at the heart of our government's plan. Affordable housing gives people on modest incomes a chance to build a life without sacrificing everything else. Social housing provides safety for those in greatest need. It supports women and children leaving domestic violence. It protects older women, the fastest-growing group at risk of homelessness. The only real answer to homelessness is housing.

Across Victoria, demand remains high. More than 63,000 applicants sit on the social housing register. Every new home built under the HAFF is another family with stability, another child with space to grow, another community made stronger. In Melbourne I see the impact every day. My work is to make sure new developments include social and affordable homes. This is work that means a great deal to me. Before entering parliament I helped to raise a pipeline of more than $110 million through the Homes for Homes model, creating real pathways to safe and secure housing for more Australians.

The next phase of this plan will keep building on that progress. We will expand the HAFF pipeline, we will strengthen renters' protections through a national rental framework, and we will continue to grow social and affordable housing each year. The goal is simple: every Australia deserves a safe, secure, affordable place to call home. Behind every policy, every number, every brick, there is a person waiting for a key. Our job is to make sure they get it.

Marion Scrymgour (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.