Ellie Whiteaker (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

My apologies; I withdraw—these sorts of messages without providing any real solutions to the housing crisis. We know that housing is a challenge, particularly for many of my fellow young Australians. That is why we have been really clear that it is top of our agenda. Our $43 billion housing agenda is pretty simple. It's focused on three things: building more homes, making it easier to buy a first home and making it easier to rent.

In the last term of government, more than 180,000 Australians bought their first home with Labor's five per cent deposit program. That's why we have committed to expanding that program and why I'm so thrilled that the Prime Minister announced just this week that we will bring that forward to 1 October. I know just how much of a difference that will make to young Australians who are doing the hard work day in and day out but are still struggling to make their deposit.

Also in the last term, more than a million households received a 45 per cent increase on rental assistance. Since we came to office, we've built 500,000 homes and new housing approvals are up 30 per cent. We've stabilised construction costs, and we've seen 28,000 social and affordable homes in planning and construction—homes for the people who need them most. But there is more work to do, and, unlike those opposite, we're not distracting or peddling a message on social media that sounds nice; we're actually taking action. We have a plan to build even more homes than we've already built.

We will continue on the path to build 55,000 social and affordable homes, as well as building 100,000 homes just for first home buyers. We are working towards what is a really bold but really important aspiration of 1.2 million homes in five years.

We're also making it better to rent because we know that not everyone is ready to buy their first home right now, and they shouldn't be held back by Senator Bragg and his friends. Instead we should make renting fairer, which we have done by working with the states. We will also ensure that there are thousands more rental homes built, and we will continue to work with the states to lift rental standards. We will also continue, as I said, to help first home buyers get into the market with our Help to Buy scheme.

What is really, really clear is that those opposite have no ideas on housing. They have no policy to get more Australians into homes. They have no policy to make renting more affordable, but Labor does.