Ali France (Dickson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Housing, the Minister for Homelessness and the Minister for Cities. What is the Albanese Labor government doing to help Australians get into their first home, and how does this compare to alternative approaches?

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

I thank the member for Dickson for her question. As Labor people, we share a really simple belief, and that is that homeownership should be available to ordinary Australians. Our government has now backed 1,700 people in the member for Dickson's electorate into their first home, and we're proud to have done it.

The member for Dickson recently talked to me about Matthew, a local teacher she met at a street stall. He came over to thank her. He's a middle-income earner, and he and his family have been able to buy their first home under our five per cent deposit program. Now, Matthew is far from alone. He is one of 230,000 Australians right around this country who have got into homeownership with our government's backing. This is a massive number of people. In fact, for the first time in Australian history, more than half of the first home buyers in the market are in the market with the support and the backing of their government.

The five per cent deposit program is hugely popular with the people who desperately need that support. But what is really extraordinary is that those opposite oppose this support—

Jamie Chaffey (Parkes, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You better stop interest rates from going up then!

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

 The minister will pause. The member for Parkes has interjected 15 times. He will leave the chamber under 94(a). You may sit a long way away, but that's no excuse to be continually interjecting non-stop through every single answer.

The member for Parkes then left the chamber .

The minister will now continue.

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

Two hundred and thirty thousand people across the country were helped into first homeownership. Inexplicably, those opposite opposed this incredibly popular program. Why would this be? They have said that the five per cent deposit program will be used by the children of billionaires. Like Gina Rinehart's children are going to be buying an affordable home with a 95 per cent mortgage in the member for Dickson's electorate—yeah, right! They also call this a 'gimmick', and this is the one that really gets me. Let's call this for exactly what it is, and that is pure snobbery. How do you think it feels for someone like Matthew or the 230,000 other people who have needed this program to get into the market to be told that this is somehow a gimmick?

This program is one that helps the average first home buyer in our country go from having to save for 10 or 11 years to get into their first home all the way down to two or three years. Those are eight years that that young person is paying off their own mortgage rather than someone else's, and those opposite call it a gimmick. I want every one of the 1,660 Australians in the electorate of Farrer to know that we have helped them get into homeownership through a program that those opposite want to shut down. I want the 5,612 Australians supported in the member for La Trobe's electorate to know that he thinks that they must be the children of billionaires. And I want the 1,224 Australians in the member for Hume's electorate to know that, if it were up to him, then they would still be renting.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Resume your seat—I know where you're going to go. Can the minister refer to people by their correct titles? It's a relatively new thing that has been taken up, I might add to those opposite.

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

As we've seen today, those opposite are an absolute rabble who, as usual, are focused on creating chaos and fighting against each other. But there's one group of people that our government is here for every single day, and that's the Australian people.