Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

'Going once, going twice, sold' was a phrase that once was the beginning of the Australian dream for working Australians, which for many has now become a pipedream. We're here to change that. The Albanese Labor government will cut the cost of buying a home by up to 40 per cent for 10,000 Australians per year. Help to Buy will help Australians buy a home with a smaller deposit, smaller mortgage and smaller mortgage repayments. This will cut the cost of some mortgages by up to $400,000.

The scheme will mean that eligible homebuyers will have an equity contribution of up to 40 per cent of the purchase price of a new home and 30 per cent of the purchase price for an existing home. With only two per cent of the price needed for a deposit to qualify for a standard home loan, 10,000 people that have been kept out of the homeownership market due to the initial cost will be able to achieve homeownership a lot easier through a dramatic decrease in the initial price. They'll be able to qualify for a standard home loan with a participating lender to finance the rest of the purchase a lot more easily than it has been before.

Decreasing the initial barrier to homeownership allows more hardworking Australians to enter the housing market. Help to Buy is intended to support Australians who would otherwise not be able to purchase a home. That's why the government is committed to an ambitious housing reform agenda, which includes establishing the Help to Buy scheme to help more Australians into their own home. We understand that we have a housing crisis in Australia, which developed under the stewardship of those opposite, and homeownership has become harder than ever before. It's harder now in cities, it's harder in the regions, and it's harder in our local communities. There has been a massive drop of homeownership, especially for low- and moderate-income earners. If you're not a trust fund baby, it seems like you should just give up on the Australian dream.

We know that many older Australians, single parents and those from minority backgrounds are more vulnerable and find it a near impossibility to enter the housing market.

Even just looking at 40 years ago, when 60 per cent of young Australians on low to moderate incomes owned their own homes. It's now down to 28 per cent.

The Help to Buy scheme before us today is just one element of the Albanese government's plan to improve housing affordability, honouring our commitment from the last election.

We've already legislated the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, the $3 billion Social Housing Accelerator program and the largest increase to Commonwealth rent assistance in 30 years.

We know this is not going to fix the crisis overnight but it's laying the foundations to build a sustainable and fit-to-work housing system after the years of neglect we have seen.

We are investing in the future of housing for younger generations.

The government understands that affordable housing is critical to Australia's economic wellbeing, and with National Cabinet we are making sure people across our country can get access to the scheme.

Once the scheme is established, 10,000 people over each the next four years will get access to lower deposits and lower mortgages.

This is on top of the more than 86,000 people who have accessed the Home Guarantee Scheme, including the 13,000 Australians who have acquired home ownership through the Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee.

We know this policy will bridge the gap that many Australians experience when entering the housing market.

People within our electorates also know that this is a scheme that could also potentially open the doors of a new home for them.

A resident of Hurstbridge has been in regular contact with my office regarding the incoming Help to Buy Scheme. Since we announced it at the last election, he has been desperate to jump on board to apply.

As an older Australian, who wants to achieve the Australian dream, he sees it as his chance to actually get there.

I look forward to when the political games end and I can finally inform him that applications have opened.

We have the opportunity to get this scheme through parliament to help people right across the nation.

The only roadblock to people accessing this scheme is getting the legislation through and pass the egos who seek to block it.

The government is giving people the housing stability that people deserve to live fulfilling and safe lives.

As we look to get this legislation through, despite roadblocking by the coalition and the preaching of the Greens, I want to share a story with the parliament from a single mother in the electorate of McEwen and I want those who are blocking the bill to listen to this:

I have been a single parent for close to 11 years.

In 2013, upon my marriage breakdown and the sale of our home, I found myself a 41 year old woman back in the rental market, something I never expected after having worked hard and sacrificed to save for a deposit close to 15 years earlier, this time with three dependants 14, 8 and 5 years of age.

While I had a small settlement from the sale of our home, as a low-income earner I was unable to secure finance to purchase my own home.

There was no bank keen to approve a loan for a woman on a single income with three dependent children. (At the time I could not even get approval for a $1,000, 12-month interest-free deal on a TV!)

While I am university educated and was working in my field of study, it is not a profession which pays a great deal, which continued to affect my ability to get a loan.

And while over the last 4 years I have been lucky enough to find roles within this profession to increase my income, it still hasn't been enough.

We are a single income home. I have paid for the education of my oldest two children who are now young adults and still have one child at school.

The cost of my children's education meant that a fair proportion of the settlement I received went to them.

Further, I live in a regional area which has also had an impact on the opportunities available to me and the amount I can earn.

Without close family support, I have needed to rely on childcare and working close to home to raise my children.

I am now 52 years old and often hear the largest growing cohort of homeless people are women of my age and in my situation.

I also do not have a great deal of super because for many years I was only working casually—if at all with young children—and at the time our priority was to add extra to my former partner's superannuation to take care of both of us in retirement … and that's not the way it panned out.

I know that I am lucky that I am fit and healthy, allowing me to hopefully have the ability to work as long as I like, but no one knows what's around the corner.

The prospect of trying to survive renting on a pension or rely on the generosity of my children is not one I want to entertain. Labor's Help to Buy scheme is a perfect example of the way a government can provide a leg up to someone in my position, who despite the best laid plans finds themselves locked out of the housing market and not enjoying the security that comes from your own home.

As other members of our community know renting is stressful.

Whether it is the 6 monthly checks or the constant fear of eviction.

In the first 3 and a half years we had to move 3 times after selling our home. Whether it was due to landlords moving back in or the sale of the rental property.

For someone trying to provide stability for children who had undergone a massive family upheaval the constant relocation was a nightmare.

Add to that the recent rent increases continue to impede any ability to save for a deposit, and while interest rates have been a problem for mortgage holders they will decrease as inflation drops.

I doubt the rent will follow.

Rents will not go down unless a substantial increase in available properties becomes apparent as the competition for tenants will remain.

This scheme will give those on low and middle incomes an opportunity to buy a home with at least a 2 per cent deposit, allowing them to access home ownership which is linked to short, medium, and long-term economic security.

It helps people overcome both the hurdle of saving for a deposit and the hurdle of servicing a mortgage, with the Commonwealth providing an equity contribution, meaning scheme participants will have lower ongoing repayments from a smaller home loan.

This is the only way I can see myself being able to get back into home ownership… short of winning Tattslotto!

The Help to Buy scheme is a great program for women like myself.

Even without the current cost of living, single income homes have always done it tough and the security to be able to have a home I could call my own, and not constantly feel like I am just treading water—would be amazing to me.

That's a very important story, and it just shows those opposite aren't listening to what's actually going on in the real world. It's easy to sit there and say, 'Oh, we don't think this will work,' and then not put up any options about how things could be done better. We know that under the previous government their HomeBuilder scheme, or as it was commonly known 'rich people's bathroom renovations'—that's all it delivered. It overheated the market.

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