Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week, my colleague, the Minister for Housing, Clare O'Neil, the member for Hotham, joined me in Darwin to announce support for more first home buyers from Darwin to get into homeownership by increasing the property price cap for the five per cent home deposit scheme. Currently, the property price cap for the Northern Territory is $600,000 across the board for the whole of the territory. However, we announced that on 1 July this year two price caps will operate in the Northern Territory—one for Greater Darwin, which will be $750,000, and one for the remainder of the Northern Territory, which will remain at $600,000, taking into account median house prices across our great territory. This change brings the NT in line with other states and ensures that our Greater Darwin property price cap aligns with median house prices in Darwin, which have been on the rise. It brings more properties in Darwin into eligibility for the scheme and will give first home buyers in Darwin more choice. Hundreds more Australians will get into homeownership years sooner because of this change, saving tens of thousands of dollars on lenders mortgage insurance. The five per cent deposit scheme has already helped more than 1,800 Territorians move into their first home since we moved into government in 2022.

Industry has welcomed this announcement, including Luis Espinoza of HIA, Housing Industry Association, Northern Territory, who I visited on site in Holtze at the big housing development there last week. Young people have welcomed this too. I attended an event in Darwin on Thursday with local radio stations Hot100 and Mix FM, and I received that message loud and clear from the absolute legends there, young people working for those radio stations who gave me great feedback and just kept on serving up banger after banger at that event. Thank you.

A key part of Labor's plan to build houses is growing our construction workforce. Last month I joined the celebration of the partnership between Intract, McMahon, the HIA and SEDA College to deliver the Construction and Trade Program. This program provides year 11 students with the opportunity to complete their secondary education while gaining practical skills, hands-on training, mentoring and industry exposure, all nationally recognised with the qualification of a Certificate II in Construction Pathways. Thank you to Billie-Jo Hudson, Mick Laidler, Luis Espinoza, Francis Gill from the SEDA College and the fantastic kids at SEDA College.