Dan Repacholi (Hunter, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank my friend from Gilmore for bringing this motion forward. As any great economist will tell you, there are three foundational needs for any human: food, water and shelter. I'm proud to say that this government is providing what Australians need. We're addressing the housing crisis that those opposite created. We're helping to make sure that Aussies will be able to have a roof over their heads, whether they're a person in regional Australia looking to buy their first home, through our Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee, or they're making the most of the increased social and affordable housing that is becoming available because of our work in widening the remit of the National Housing Infrastructure Facility. On top of this, even more people will find it easier to gain one of their most basic human rights, shelter, in the form of housing, after this government established the Interim National Housing Supply and Affordability Council and struck the National Housing Accord, which will bring together all levels of government, along with investors and the construction sector. These are practical measures which just make sense, and they will have serious impacts on making housing in this country more affordable and more accessible for all.

This Albanese-led Labor government leaves no-one behind. We actually care about the people, and these policies show that we're serious about addressing the housing crisis and getting people into their own home sooner. But the work doesn't stop there. We know there is more to be done and we are more than ready for the task. Unlike those opposite, we aren't about announcements with no follow-up and we don't create policy just to attract cute little positive media stories. We're about following up on amazing policies that are already underway and already making real-world impact, such as establishing the Housing Australia Future Fund and developing the National Housing and Homelessness Plan. We're providing approximately $1.6 billion per year to the states and territories through the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement. We're also investing $91.7 million in the Reconnect program over the next three years to address youth homelessness.

I'm particular proud of, and excited by, the Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee. This is directly aimed at helping Australians in electorates like mine, the Hunter. House prices in my electorate have boomed in recent years. I completely understand people wanting to live in the Hunter. It's the gateway to paradise! Without a doubt, it's the best place to live in Australia—and the world—but, for people looking to buy a house in the Hunter for the first time, the issue is that it's becoming completely unaffordable. When I was growing up, the great Australian dream was to one day own your own house. But, sadly, this is so far out of reach that young people in Australia today cannot practically consider homeownership because in many cases it's not even close to being affordable. This is a sad reality of modern Australia, and it is the sad reality for many in my electorate.

Because of this government, 2,700 Australians have been helped towards realising this great Australian dream and owning their own home. This government is making the great Australian dream of owning your own home a reality again. And this policy gets even better: all of these 2,700 Australian homeowners are in regional Australia. Many of these are in my electorate—147 of them, to be precise.

This is what happens when a government is elected who cares about people, a government who takes real action on the issues that affect the everyday people of Australia. This is an issue that should have been addressed a long time ago, because the expectation and aspiration to own our own home is not an unreasonable desire to have. Now, with a government that cares, listens and acts, in a period of not even six months since the Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee was passed in this parliament, 2,700 people have been helped to reach this desire of owning their own home. If this is the impact of this policy in less than six months, imagine how many first home buyers will be able to enter the market throughout the remainder of our term in government and hopefully well into the future.

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