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

Here we are again—another day, another housing motion from Senator Bragg. To Senator Bragg and to those opposite: only Labor has a plan to build more homes, only Labor has a plan to get renters a better deal and only Labor has a plan to get more Australians into homeownership. Time and time again, day after day, we come into this place and we hear Senator Bragg and those opposite talk about housing. What they don't say—but what we know to be true—is that they don't want more Australians getting into their first home. They don't want us to build more houses. They have stood in the way. They have blocked every single effort that this government has made to get more Australians into their own home. They have blocked and stood in the way of every attempt that we have made to build more homes. They have blocked and stood in the way of every attempt that we have made to get more young people into their very first home. So, while the coalition are here to play politics and continue their long record of doing absolutely nothing on housing, Labor is getting on with the job.

We know that housing is a life-defining challenge for so many Australians, and, when we came to government, what was clear was that people were working hard, doing everything right, but were still not able to get into their own home. Too many people across this country couldn't afford a place of their own. We hear it out and about. I certainly hear it in my home state of Western Australia—families who can't get into a house big enough for their kids; young people who fear they will never be able to buy their own home. We know it is tough.

It's because, when we came to government, there had been a decade of neglect when those opposite were at the table. I was astonished to learn that they didn't even have a housing minister for most of their time in government. Well, no wonder we are in the position we are in. Labor have an ambitious $43 billion housing agenda, and we will not be distracted by Senator Bragg. We will not be distracted by those opposite who try to turn this into politics and try to turn it into a headline grab. We are getting on with the job of delivering the boldest and most ambitious housing agenda that this country has seen in the postwar period. We will not apologise for it, because we are tackling the housing challenge from every angle. Our Housing Australia Future Fund is a $10 billion investment to build 55,000 social and affordable homes in the next five years. It is the largest national investment in housing in a generation, and Senator Bragg and his colleagues on the other side of this chamber continue to tear it down and to try and stand in our way.

We have a long-term commitment to rebuild Australia's social housing system. We are proud of that work. We are proud of that record. While we are focused on building more social and affordable homes for Australians, while we are focused on helping more young people get into their first home with our the five per cent deposit scheme, the coalition are actively trying to make it more difficult for you to buy your own home. They are actively making it more difficult for us to build the homes that we need to increase housing supply. Without a housing policy of their own, all they know how to do is stand in the way and block and bulldoze. For almost a decade they were tapped out on this issue. They were tapped out on our national housing challenge—no leadership, no plan and certainly no investment. For most of their nine years in government, we saw essentially nothing.

So, Senator Bragg, I say to you: when your side were in government, you got us into this mess, but what I know is that Labor will get us out of this. We will make the biggest investment in housing in a generation, and we will not let you stand in our way.