Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

Probably relevant for this discussion as well is the fact that construction cost inflation has fallen under this government. From a high under the coalition, when it was running annually at 17 per cent, it has now fallen to 2.1 per cent under Labor. There are more first home buyers under Labor. We've directly helped 197,000 Australians into homeownership sooner. That's three times more than the former government. Housing approvals are up 15 per cent compared to a year ago, with townhouses and apartments up 55 per cent compared to a year ago. New home starts are up, new dwelling commencements were up 9.2 per cent in the March quarter and, overall, over 520,000 new homes have been built under the Labor government. This includes more than 5,000 social and affordable homes delivered with federal government investment compared to—how many?—373 over a decade by those opposite, because they didn't care about social and affordable housing. That is the progress we are making. We will use every lever available to us to ensure that everyone has access to secure and sustainable housing. (Time expired)