Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Labor makes no apologies for having an ambitious housing target. We need an ambitious target, given the scale of the problem we inherited when we came to government in 2022. I take note that those opposite, the coalition, in their decade of power, did not actually have a housing minister for at least six years of that decade. When we came to government, we found absolutely no movement in social and affordable housing and no plan to increase housing supply, so we had a situation where we had demand chasing an ever-shrinking pool of housing right across the country. Of course, that just drove up rents and house prices, putting the great Australian dream further and further out of reach out of young people.

We all understand the scale of the problem, but I find it incredibly disingenuous that those opposite would challenge us on our track record when they had the temerity in this chamber to delay key housing bills not just once, not just twice, but at least three times. The Housing Australia Future Fund was an election promise in 2022. I know it well because I spoke to thousands of people in Higgins, along with Senator Stewart, who accompanied me on doors and on the phones, describing to those constituents what we were offering. I described in detail the Housing Australia Future Fund, and they liked it. They responded to it because they felt that we needed a legacy reform that would outlive, frankly, any government, good or bad. The Housing Australia Future Fund, a $10 billion investment in 55,000 homes, was just that vehicle.

You'd think that winning a seat like Higgins would send a message to the coalition—the first Labor member in this blue of blue-ribbon seats, a seat of leaders, a seat of four previous Liberal prime ministers. You'd think that that would send a message, but, of course, it didn't. It fell on deaf ears because in this chamber those opposite delayed the Housing Australia Future Fund for at least 12 months. When it was finally passed in September 2023, we scrambled to get agreements out the door. Currently we have 28,000 homes that are in planning stages or under construction as a result of passing that legislation. Full credit goes to the Minister for Housing in the other place, who has done her level best to get these deals done and signed and out the door. We as a government have invested $43 billion in homes for Australia. That is the most any Commonwealth government has invested in living memory.

It's not just the Housing Australia Future Fund; there is also the Home Guarantee Scheme. This was a coalition legacy, and, because it was a good policy, we retained it and we improved on it. It allows entrants a five per cent deposit and eliminates lenders mortgage insurance. What we found was that it was taken up, so we expanded the remit of it. We allowed not just first home owners but their relatives—for example, parents, guardians, friends, de factos and so on—to help the first home buyer into the housing market, expanding its eligibility. What we found was that, in a relatively short period of time, over 100,000 Australians entered the housing market through the Home Guarantee Scheme.

As a result, we went to the May election expanding that even further. We increased the income caps and the price caps on the homes people could buy. Essentially, we said to first home buyers, 'You can enter the housing market with as little as a five per cent deposit,' and, 'We are ring fencing 100,000 homes at a cost of $10 billion just for you—for first home buyers and not for anyone else.' And Australians responded to that policy.

But that was not all; we also have the build-to-rent reforms. These were delayed by several months in this chamber—unconscionable, in a housing crisis. Build-to-rent is another housing model. It will increase housing supply by around 80,000. Of those homes, 10 per cent—8,000—will be social and affordable homes. And build-to-rent is different; it has security of tenure. Five-year leases— (Time expired)