Alice Jordan-Baird (Gorton, 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 Australians across the country to get into a home of their own? Are there any other approaches to housing policy?

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

I thank the member for Gorton for her fantastic question. She's one of our brilliant incoming class of 2025, one of many in our caucus who speak so powerfully for the younger generations of our country who are being treated so unfairly by our broken housing system. The member for Gorton and I share a really simple belief, and that is that everyone in our country should have a safe place to call home. But, for far too many Australians, their housing dream keeps slipping further and further away. Whether it's the dream of buying their own home, renting somewhere near where they work or getting into much needed social and affordable housing, the system is not working for them.

As the Prime Minister said before, our housing system in this country is broken. It is cooked. It is hurting people, and that is why our government is standing up and doing something about it. That is why our government is levelling the playing field for first home buyers and building on the work that we have done to get a quarter of a million Australians the keys to their own home, and we're damn proud to have done it. It's why we're committing another $2 billion of investment in last-mile infrastructure to unlock another 65,000 homes. That builds on $4.3 billion that we'd already committed to that endeavour. It's why our government is so proud to be delivering 55,000 social and affordable homes around the country. We've just ticked over 7,000 of them being completed.

I'm asked about alternatives, and I want to speak about the approach of those opposite. For nine long years, this group of charlatans sat on the government benches—for most of that time, without a housing minister.

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

To assist the House—we don't need that sort of language, Minister.

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

I withdraw.

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

We want to show everyone respect here and use correct titles as well.

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

Those opposite did nothing about the housing challenge that went from bad to worse to awful. They did nothing about a generation of young people who were being locked out of the housing market. Now they come in here, and they want to lecture us about aspiration.

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

The member for Barker is now warned.

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

I don't want to just speak about the record of the Liberals. We can't forget the Nationals in this discussion. I want to see if the parliament can remember how many social and affordable homes the Nationals built in the whole of rural and regional Australia when they were in power. How many was it? It was absolutely none. Not a single home was built in regional and rural Australia by those people sitting opposite.

We have got a long way to go on housing, but our government has the most ambitious housing plan that the Commonwealth has had in this country for 70 years. We started in 2022, we built on it in the budget and we'll keep fighting because we believe that every person in this country should have a safe roof over their head.