Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today we're talking about more than just the intricacies of policy and legislation. The Help to Buy Bill 2023 and the Help to Buy (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2023 we have before the House are about a commitment to transform lives and empower the return of the Aussie dream of home ownership to a new generation of Australians. It hails from a promise made and a commitment now kept.

The Albanese Labor government understands safe and affordable housing is central to the security and dignity of all Australians. Sadly, too many Australians cannot find an affordable place to buy. Rising interest rates have been difficult for those with a mortgage, and the rental market remains very tight, with low vacancy rates and high rents across Australia. That's why our government has committed to an ambitious housing reform agenda to boost the supply of all housing, more public and social housing, more affordable housing, more homes to rent and more homes to buy. Help to Buy is an initiative to get more Australians into home ownership, bridging the gap between aspiration and reality.

At the 2022 election, the Australian Labor Party made a vow to confront the hurdles faced by many people working hard to own their own homes, and every day since we have sought to honour that vow. Help to Buy is simple and elegant. At its heart is shared equity between the Commonwealth and mortgagee, bringing down what can be crippling upfront costs, including what can be crippling mortgage insurance.

In simple terms, lenders mortgage insurance protects banks from financial loss if the home owner can't afford to meet their home loan repayments. However, it doesn't protect the mortgagee. Generally, a lender will take out LMI when a home loan deposit is less than 20 per cent of the total value of the property. This is an upfront cost that potential home buyers need to save for on top of their deposit and it can run into the tens of thousands of dollars. On a $450,000 property, for example, if you've saved $45,000 for a 10 per cent deposit, you're still looking at needing another $8,000 for the LMI. If you've saved just a five per cent deposit, the LMI cost is closer to $15,000. Help to Buy will bring down these upfront costs, supporting up to 40,000 low- and middle-income Australian households to purchase a home of their own. Forty-thousand people is a population about twice the size of Burnie in Tasmania. This will bring homeownership back into reach for thousands of Australians, including renters who have been locked out of the housing market. Under this legislation, the Commonwealth will contribute up to 40 per cent in equity for new homes and 30 per cent for existing homes, allowing people to get their foot in the door of homeownership. It unlocks doors that have previously been slammed shut, particularly for young people. This shared-equity initiative ensures participants can enter the realm of homeownership with perhaps as little as a two per cent deposit. We know that saving for a deposit at a time when house prices are at record highs is a never-ending cycle with always-moving goal posts. By sharing ownership with the Commonwealth, participants will have lower ongoing repayments.

The commitment to Help to Buy from all states at the National Cabinet last August signifies a collective Australian effort amongst the federal government, the states and the territories to progress this legislation. I must acknowledge here my colleague the Minister for Housing—who is from Tasmania—Julie Collins. Her tireless work to deliver significant housing reforms is ensuring more Australians have a safe and affordable place to call home. Under the member for Franklin's leadership, our government is developing a new National Housing and Homelessness Plan, a 10-year strategy to help more Australians access safe and affordable housing. This plan will set out a national vision across the responsibilities of different levels of government to help guide future housing and homelessness policy, considering the full spectrum of housing and homelessness challenges, from homelessness to homeownership.

Importantly, Help to Buy is just one element of the government's commitment to improving housing affordability, including, of course, the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, the $3 billion Social Housing Accelerator Payment and the largest increase to Commonwealth Rent Assistance in 30 years. Further, the Labor government's expanded and improved Home Guarantee Scheme has now passed the milestone of 100,000 people helped into homeownership. The Home Guarantee Scheme gives eligible first-home buyers and single parents support to purchase a home sooner by reducing the deposit they need to save to buy a house. Income thresholds for this scheme are $125,000 for singles and $200,000 for joint applicants. Through this initiative, the Albanese government has helped more than 1,300 Tasmanians into homeownership since the Labor government came to power.

Our government understands the housing challenges that we are facing did not happen overnight, and they cannot be solved overnight nor by one level of government alone. The Albanese government is working with states, territories and local governments to deliver better housing outcomes all across the country. This includes work being delivered through National Cabinet to provide a more secure and affordable housing supply. For example, the National Housing Accord Facility supports planning and zoning reforms and is investing $350 million in additional federal funding to deliver 10,000 affordable rental homes over five years from 2024, matched by the states and territories. There is federal funding of $2 billion through the Social Housing Accelerator to deliver around 4,000 new social rental homes across Australia. And there is a $500 million housing support program for initiatives to help kickstart housing supply, including by connecting essential services and amenities to support new housing development or by building planning capability.

Help to Buy is about taking the stress and difficulty out of homeownership as much as possible. Ten thousand places will be available each year for four years. Places will be allocated to participating states and territories initially on a per capita basis. This initiative is aimed at supporting low- to middle-income households into homeownership, with income caps at $90,000 for singles and $120,000 for joint applicants. In Tassie's capital city, Help to Buy participants will be able to purchase a property up to $600,000 and, for Tasmanians outside Hobart, participants will be able to purchase a property up to $450,000. Let's look at this in practical terms for a moment. In my electorate, 15 per cent of workers are employed in the healthcare industry. Under Help to Buy, a nurse on the median weekly household income of around $1,200 a week looking to buy a $450,000 home will need only a two per cent deposit of $9,000. It's not insignificant, but it is vastly more achievable than aiming to save a 20 per cent deposit of $90,000 or even a 10 per cent deposit of $45,000. This means Help to Buy participants, whether a nurse from New Norfolk, a truckie from Triabunna, builder from Brighton or a machine operator from Maydena, can buy a home with a smaller deposit, a smaller mortgage and smaller mortgage repayments. I know critics of the scheme say, 'If you allow people to buy homes with less of a deposit, will they really be able to afford the home?' I ask those critics to look at the rent that people are paying. People are paying rent sometimes well in excess of what these mortgage repayments would be.

Most people will one day want to own their own property without government as an equity partner. We understand that. When the time comes, it will be as simple as buying the government out of its share or one day selling that property and repaying the government for its equity percentage and then using the proceeds for a standalone deposit. This is not the only answer to homeownership but it is one of the answers to increasing homeownership and helping people, particularly young people and low- and middle-income people, get on the rung of the ladder of homeownership.

Despite the support for Help to Buy nationally, the coalition is sadly opposing it and the Greens, as usual, want to use it as a hostage for their own agenda. The respective positions of the Liberals and the Greens unfortunately put political gains before the interests of 40,000 aspiring Australian homeowners. The member for Deakin spouted his usual negativity a fortnight ago, starting a fear campaign that this bill is unnecessary or that we will force people to sell their homes if their circumstances change. The government offered the member for Deakin a meeting to discuss his concerns, but I'm advised we received no response. We've had silence from the member for Deakin, which is not what we are usually subjected to in question time, I must say!

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