Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

I suspect that that won't be the first Vancouver joke that I get, but I'm delighted to have Senator Payman's question 'aboot' the housing questions. The truth, Senator Payman, is that the five per cent deposit scheme that was introduced by this government is a life-changing intervention for many, many young Australians.

It's all very well. I've heard some of the heckling this time from our friends in the Greens political party, sneering from the vantage point of the homes that they own at young Australians who just want to have a go and who just want to get a foot on the ladder. It's alright to sneer from the Max Chandler-Mather dinner party position. I understand it's the 'nuanced strategy position'. But ordinary people, young Australians—this has been, for many of them, the first time that they have seen an opportunity for themselves to be able to save a deposit and get in there. Unhappily for Senator Bragg's negative-Nancy argument, they have been doing it in droves, hand over fist—getting them and their partners and them and their families, for the first time, into a home. That is what Labor is about: driving action and supply and giving people a fair crack at having a go at the housing market. That is something that I thought you might have supported. (Time expired)