Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

I saw 48 new homes almost at completion, about to get people into them. These are real homes on the ground that I saw just in the last week. I met with people like Glenda in Riverwood in New South Wales and like Nanna Pam and Kevin and Leanne in Latrobe in their new homes, where they spoke to me about how important it is for them to have a safe, secure and affordable roof over their heads.

That's why we're delivering our $32 billion Homes for Australia Plan. It's why we're working with the housing sector, with the construction sector and, importantly, with the other tiers of government, particularly the states and territories. We need to get more homes on the ground more quickly, but it will take everybody with their shoulder to the wheel to meet our nation's ambitious housing target of 1.2 million homes from 1 July to the end of the decade. It is ambitious because it needs to be. We need to add to supply because supply is the answer to our housing challenges. We know that, and the experts know that, but apparently those opposite don't seem to know it. They voted against more homes when they voted against our Housing Australia Future Fund. They're voting against getting more people into homeownership with our Help to Buy shared-equity scheme. We hear they're not going to have a target. They didn't offer in their budget reply one new dollar for one new home. They have very little to offer except negativity.

See this speech in context