Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in support of the motion moved by the Hon. Minister for Housing and member for Franklin. The Help to Buy policy was a key election commitment that we took to the Australian people in 2022, and the Help to Buy Bill 2023 is honouring that commitment. This will support up to 40,000 Australians purchase a home of their own. Despite the coalition's attempts to discredit this policy during the election, the Help to Buy scheme is a solid, no-nonsense policy squarely aimed at giving those on low and middle incomes the opportunity to purchase a home by helping participants overcome the hurdles of saving for a deposit and servicing a mortgage.

The scheme is one element of the government's commitment to improving housing affordability, including—I remind you—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. Who would have thought that a prime minister that grew up in social housing would be so focused on making sure that Australians have a roof over their head? Affordable housing is critical to the economic wellbeing of all Australians, and that's why the Albanese government is taking action.

Despite a 'no-alition' attempt to cast doubt and discredit this scheme, the Albanese government has been working carefully on the design with states, territories and lenders. It's a shame that, when the member for Deakin was offered a meeting to discuss the issues that he's raised in parliament, the shadow minister for housing did not respond. If the member for Deakin had attended that meeting, he would have found that our scheme is very much like the Home Guarantee Scheme, which the former Liberal and National government designed. Its criteria are set out in delegated legislation. The shadow minister for housing would also have discovered, if he'd accepted the opportunity to meet, that our scheme is nothing like the HomeBuilder scheme, which blew the housing market and was criticised by state, territories and many others.

We made it very clear in our election campaign what the key criteria would be for Help to Buy. In fact, my campaign had fact sheets setting out very clearly what the criteria would be. What Australians need at this time is a government that's going to act on what it says in terms of putting a roof over Australians, and I'm glad that we are committed to doing that. I'll have a more to say on this down the track.

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