Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) | Hansard source

Our changes are about backing first home buyers. I remind the Senate that house prices have increased around 400 per cent since 2000, and 58 per cent since 2020. That means first home buyers have found it much harder to enter the market; senators who engage with the community will know that that is the case. Increasingly, owning your own home has been out of reach for too many Australians. We are determined to fix that. We have been determined to fix that because we know the status quo is not sustainable.

I make a couple of points. Many factors, not just tax settings, influence the housing market. I note that auction clearance rates were declining before the budget. A number of factors influence the housing market. I refer again to the Treasury forecasts, which assume house prices will continue to grow and that the changes in the budget mean that house prices will be around two per cent lower than they would otherwise have been. I note Senator Bragg himself has said that house prices are too high; I note he said that. We are seeking, through the tax changes that we have made, to level the playing field when it comes to first home buyers, because we want more young Australians to get their own home.