Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is for the Minister for Housing, Minister for Homelessness and Minister for Cities. What is the Albanese Labor government doing to build more houses and help more Australians into homeownership? Why is a focus on delivery, not division, so important?

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

I'm absolutely thrilled to get this question from the member for Spence because, of course, on Saturday the Prime Minister and I were in the member for Spence's beautiful electorate in South Australia as we announced a landmark deal with the South Australian government under our 100,000 homes policy—2026 is going to be an absolutely massive year for housing. Our big focus is delivery, delivery, delivery. We have got a $45 billion agenda here, which will make a transformative change to housing opportunities in our country. We're building more homes, we're getting renters a better deal, and we're getting more Australians into homeownership.

First home owners are unashamedly right at the centre of the focus that we have. During the election campaign, our prime minister announced that we're going to build 100,000 homes just for first home buyers. We've been able to make this fantastic deal with the South Australian government. That deal will see us build 17,000 homes in South Australia; 7,000 of these homes will be reserved just for first home buyers—no competition from investors or from people who have had housing opportunities already. They're just for those people who are missing out now. The work with the South Australian government has been really straightforward on construction for one reason: we share a very simple belief with the Premier, Peter Malinauskas. That is that we believe ordinary Australians should get the chance to own their own home. Under our government, that is happening more often.

I'm asked about alternative approaches, and there are actually quite a few that we've seen.

We're getting a bit of backchat here from the Leader of the Opposition. We saw the work, so called, that she did when she was sitting on the front benches behind me where, for nine years in this country, we had a government that was so checked out of housing for most of that time that they didn't even have a housing minister.

Now our government is on the pathway to building 55,000 homes. Do you know how many homes they built while they were in office? In nine long years in this country, they built 373 homes for Australians. No wonder things are so diabolical. That was the 'do nothing' approach. Then we had the 'make it worse' approach, where they brought to the last election a policy that would have seen the Australian government build fewer homes and make existing housing cost more—what a stupid idea. Now, we see the approach that they have at the moment, and the truth is that we have opposite us a set of opposition parties who are so divided, so dysfunctional, that they do not have a single sensible thing to say about housing, one of the most important issues facing our country. They are much too focused on coffees and gossip and psychodrama to focus on the Australian people. We have a different approach. Housing is a priority of our government, and we are delivering for the Australian people.