Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Every so often in this place, there come moments when we have an ability to define what Australia is all about—or the future of Australia, really, for better or worse. We sit here quite uniquely privileged to help shape the future of our nation; I think that's why we're all here. I can't think of more pressing issues for Australians than the cost of living and housing. Everywhere I go in my electorate of Wills, people share their experiences of housing becoming more and more out of reach, and that's been the case for a number of years. This is an issue for everyone, including younger Australians, who feel completely locked out of the housing market—and I agree with them. For 10 years the coalition government sat on the treasury bench over there and allowed the issue of housing to, effectively, fester, ignoring the pleas for help and assistance from younger generations of Australians. Today, the Albanese Labor government are actually answering the call to action and we're taking action.

Fundamentally, housing is the foundational aspect of building a better life. It's the basis on which people can realise their full potential and an issue close to my heart. I think many people here would share that as well. My own story is one that is probably emblematic of the old Australian dream of homeownership. I'm the son of migrant parents. I remember growing up in a housing commission flat. Admittedly it was a little rough, but I also remember the sense of gratitude that I had. It was really the successive state and federal Labor governments—particularly the Hawke Labor government at the time—and their policies that gave my family the safety, the security and the sense of belonging through which we were able to access public housing and good education. These policies made a huge difference. Those housing policies gave my family and me a place to call home.

So, yes, I'm a houso and proud of that, and the son of migrants parents and proud of that. Through their hard work, they were able to save up enough to move out of the housing commission and buy their own home. Now, in the early eighties, when they did that, the average house price was around 3.3 times an Australian's annual income. Today the average house price is about 10 times or more the average income, so there's a huge disparity there.

Having been a beneficiary of governments getting housing policy right, that kind of upbringing informs my perspective on housing policy today. The view is quite simple. The starting point for me as a first principle is that housing is a human right. Like many, I want housing to be not a distant dream but a reality for Australians. In many ways, in my electorate of Wills that is indicative of the aspiration that many Australians have. We know that many rent. We know that many have mortgages and are under pressure. But everyone in the community wants to realise their full potential as well. People in my community of Wills regularly contact me and outline the immense housing stresses they face. While in our office we do our best to help support people, whether they need assistance with the housing authority or housing commission to get better accommodation or whether they need emergency accommodation. We do that work, and I know many MPs do the same type of work.

The reality, though, is this: focusing on reform and long-term solutions is really the only way you're going to make big changes and help Australia move forward on this issue. Long-term focus and structural reform will deliver that lasting benefit to millions of people who need it most, just as it did some 45 to 50 years ago, when I first started out. If you look back that far in history, you see that the 1940s to the 1970s was really the era of the so-called Australian dream of homeownership, though back in the eighties and nineties, house prices were still very much lower than they are today, as I said. Buyers would borrow less, save smaller deposits and spend less of their overall income on housing. Today owning a home outright has dropped by 10 per cent and rental stress is worsening. For young people, homeownership is harder than ever before.

Rental stress is a significant issue, particularly for young Australians, single-parent families, low-wage workers and older Australians on fixed incomes. Many young people are facing rent increase after rent increase, making it unaffordable to make ends meet, let alone save for a house deposit. This also includes essential workers: nurses, aged-care workers, early educators, police, ambos and those in hospitality. They are effectively priced out of the rental market, particularly in inner-city areas. Some workers spend half to two-thirds of their income on rent. They tend to have to commute long distances from their homes to the hospitals, stations or other places of work. These are the same essential workers who with such bravery and dedication helped us get through the pandemic.

Around one million renters across the country live in homes that are unsafe for their health as well. This is an important issue in this debate, but they're afraid to speak up and request repairs, in case they get evicted. As many in this place know, single women over 55 are particularly vulnerable to homelessness. These are often women who were more likely to have taken on family or carer responsibilities, working casual or part-time roles, and have less or no super to fall back on. It is unacceptable that, in a country endowed with wealth and opportunity, many of our fellow Australians have nowhere to call home.

We cannot continue to let this happen. We can't simply accept this reality that 70 per cent of young people believe they will never own their own home, which is the polling that suggests that lack of belief. We cannot forfeit responsibility for future generations, who are demanding that we act.

This is a place where we debate politics, and we can't let the previous government have a free pass on the failures over nine years which oversaw an increase in housing construction costs of some 46 per cent. Former prime minister Morrison said he didn't believe in a legacy. Well, he left a legacy of higher house prices, higher rents and greater housing stress, a legacy that's left many Australians unable to buy their own home.

Equally, we have the Greens political party pushing for policies that don't and actually can't work. They've been preaching about a rent freeze, as we heard from the previous speaker. I've got some news for the previous speaker: it doesn't actually work. The data from international jurisdictions shows that for properties under rent controls there were increases in price and for properties not under rent controls there was ghettoisation and deterioration. This is just hard data and evidence that exists. So, basically, you've got the Greens party, who are free to play politics in this place and to grandstand, incomprehensibly when it comes to this bill voting with the coalition against the Help to Buy scheme. They are voting against the Help to Buy scheme for political gain and as political grandstanding. It's remarkable. In contrast, the Albanese Labor government is focused on the substance of these policies. To make a genuine difference to people's lives is what we are doing this for.

What is the substance of the bill that the Greens political party and the coalition parties are voting against? We just heard from the previous speaker that they are not going to support it. That's out of their own mouth. This bill presents an actual unmistakeable opportunity to reverse the decade of decline in serious housing policy. It's an opportunity the House and the Senate should take and must take.

The Help to Buy scheme fulfils Labor's election commitment to support up to 40,000 Australian families and households to purchase a home of their own. This will mean the government will support eligible homebuyers with an equity of up to 40 per cent for new homes and 30 per cent for existing homes. This policy will not only provide a foot in the door for Australians with smaller savings but also provide long-term relief for Australians who are part of the scheme. Our broad housing agenda, as the minister outlined, is directly addressing the issue of supply. It is all about supply, supply, supply. The government has already helped more than 80,000 Australians into homeownership and, thanks to this legislation, many more Australians will have the opportunity to afford their own home. Over the next five years, we will build 1.2 million new homes to increase supply.

Importantly, this policy also has cost-of-living assistance built into it. As a result of the equity stake the government will have in this scheme, first home buyers will be able to have a smaller deposit, a minimum of two per cent, and will have lower ongoing repayments while they participate in the scheme. In addition, the Help to Buy legislation will help eligible new homeowners save hundreds of dollars a month on their mortgages. This is an example of long-term relief for a problem that is decades old. It's real. It will matter to these people. These are real people. It will make a real difference to their lives every single day.

This is on top of the many initiatives our housing minister has already been spearheading. We have heard from previous speakers that apparently this is suddenly supposed to be a silver bullet. I will say that there is a lot more ammo in the chamber. There are a lot of policies that we have actually announced and started to implement over the last year and a half, such as bolstering renters' rights and providing financial support to those doing it tough. We've increased the Commonwealth rental assistance by the largest amount in 30 years—15 per cent—to provide cost-of-living assistance to renters experiencing financial stress. In addition, our government has been working extremely hard with states and territories on a renters' rights charter. This includes nationally consistent policies on genuine grounds for eviction, allowing security changes without landlord permission, making rental applications easier, protecting personal information and much, much more. Action on renters' rights is a priority for the government. We don't hide our ambition to ensure that in this country homeownership is within reach of any Aussie who aspires to it.

When I was reflecting on my remarks prior to this debate, I thought of many of my constituents that I have spoken to about this issue. I thought particularly of one woman. Her name is Mary. She spoke to me at a community event. She talked of the stresses that are synonymous with temporary accommodation and knowing that she is at risk of homelessness. I thought of Ismael and Zali, who told me recently that, even with both of them working, nearly all their income goes to child care and rent. They budget and they try not to eat out too much, but they still feel that it's impossible to have much left in terms of their savings. They also don't see themselves becoming homeowners in their lifetime. They're among that 70 per cent that have lost faith in the ability to do that. So there's an overwhelming sense from them about the hopelessness of it.

I think of Sandra, who's in her 50s, and her husband, who's 60 and working full time. Sandra has had to stop working recently because of rheumatoid arthritis and other health conditions. Both Sandra and her husband have never been able to save enough for a deposit to buy a home of their own. They've always lived in rentals and worried about how they will live as they age. Sandra said they would do anything to have a secure home to live in until they don't need it anymore. She said that they don't care if the government has equity in the home. That's what she said to me. She said: 'I'll take it. If this is going to change what I've experienced over decades, I will take that.' They were very grateful for and appreciative of that change.

When we're talking about this, how can it be that here in Australia, blessed as we are with prosperity and wealth, we allow a scenario to develop in which a family with both parents in work, or two adults who both worked into their 50s, regard it as impossible to ever own a home? This has to change. This is fundamentally not acceptable. That's why we're passing this bill in this place. I would call on those who are seeking to oppose it or who have said that they would oppose it to think of those people for whom this would make a difference in their lives. Think of the people who will actually have an enormous change to their lives because of the impacts that this legislation will have on them, to allow them to get into that homeownership—the 40,000 Australians whose lives it will change for the better. Think about those people.

When all of us come to this chamber, we have a purpose. We have a purpose to make a difference to people's lives—to make the lives of Australians better. I don't think it's too idealistic to say that I want an Australia where housing is a fundamental human right, and we can start with helping people as much as we can to get into homeownership. This is what this bill is about. Rather than grandstanding and politicising the issue, rather than jumping up and down, trying to get the meme and the photo opportunity and all the rest of it, this is about a piece of legislation that will change 40,000 lives for the better and get them into homeownership. An Australia I want is one where housing is affordable, where housing is accessible and where young people can buy a home. Inheritance can't be the only way that Australians finally get to experience homeownership.

As I stated at the beginning of this speech, every so often we're presented with the policies that provide us with an opportunity to fundamentally address a problem in a way which will shape the future of the country. We've passed a lot of bills in this place in the last year and a half on housing, whether it's the HAFF, the Help to Buy Scheme or all the other things that I've gone through in my remarks. And we've seen, consistently, opposition from the coalition and from the Greens political party. The HAFF was one example, and they finally changed their mind on that.

Every so often, issues of such profound magnitude arise, and it's up to us to address them. It's up to us to make that difference, and this is one of them. This bill is one of them—a moment that defines the future of the people in our nation and actually makes a difference to their lives. This government is taking serious action to do that, to make it easier for Australians to own their very own home. I call on those who are saying that they will oppose this to think again about the people that this will impact and the lives that will be made better because of this legislation.

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