Gabriel Ng (Menzies, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Housing. How is the Albanese Labor government helping first home buyers get into a home of their own? Why is this so important, and is the minister aware of any alternate approaches?

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

I thank the member for Menzies for his question, and I want to acknowledge the massive leadership he is showing our whole parliament on housing. He's doing a great job in leading our thinking.

Australians see a housing system that is stacked against them. Labor wants them to get ahead, and we especially want to see Australians get the chance to own their own home. That's why we've built the most ambitious housing agenda that the Commonwealth has had in 70 years, and it's why we built on that agenda on Tuesday night in our housing budget. This budget, for housing, is about two important things. It's about levelling the playing field for first homebuyers, and it's about building more homes for our country.

I was in Tasmania recently with Minister Julie Collins, and I got the chance to meet with a young woman named Jessica. Jessica has a really familiar story. She was renting and she was being pushed out of her home and she was despairing just wondering if she was ever going to get a chance to buy one of her own. She found out about Labor's five per cent deposit scheme and she finally got her chance. She told me that, when she walked into her own home for the first time, she almost cried. Jessica is one of 240,000 Australians that our government has helped into a home of their own, and we want more Australians like Jessica to have this opportunity. The five per cent deposit is all about getting you to auction sooner, and the budget from Tuesday night is making sure that, once you get there, you're fighting on a level playing field.

Our reforms will help redirect investment towards new housing supply, and they'll support another 75,000 renting households into their first home. I'm asked about alternatives. It really struck me in the last couple of days of this debate that the only people in this country who think the status quo is working for Australians are those opposite. Every single other person in this country can see that we have got a housing system that is busted for the Australian people. Our government is standing up and doing something about it.

Those opposite have previously talked about their love for aspiration. But they also say that they are going to tear down these new supports for Australia's first home buyers. They say they're going to dismantle the five per cent deposit program, and they're going to unwind the reforms that we announced on Tuesday night. I say very clearly to those opposite: if you oppose helping first home buyers, don't pretend to stand for aspiration—you're standing in the path of it.

Labor are the party of tax cuts. We are the party of homeownership and we are the party that is delivering on the aspiration of the Australian people. The 93 people behind me—we are damn proud to be doing it.

Hon. Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

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

Order! There was far too much noise from everybody during that conclusion.