Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Housing) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Bennelong has a really long record in delivering better housing for his constituents. While he served on council, 17,000 new homes were approved for his local area, 11,000 in the five years that he was mayor of his local community. Now he's here in federal parliament making a national impact on this problem, and we are so lucky to have him on our side of the chamber.

We are in a housing crisis that's been a generation in the making. Today this problem is affecting the lives of millions of people that we represent around this chamber. For the decade before we came to office the Commonwealth had effectively washed its hands of this problem. In fact, I remind those in the House that for most of the period of the previous government there was no Commonwealth housing minister. That's how tapped out they were on this critical problem for the country.

Labor is taking a very different approach to this issue. Big picture, the answer to this problem for our country is that we need to build more homes more quickly because more homes means more affordable housing for all Australians. As the member for Bennelong has said, we've set an ambitious goal with the states to try to build 1.2 million homes over the coming five years. He also mentioned the unfortunate reality that we came to office in the midst of the biggest skills shortage since the Second World War.

One of the reasons we are in such strife with housing in our country today is that decade of neglect, not just in housing but in our critical TAFE and training system. Our government introduced fee-free TAFE in 2023. Since then, half a million Australians have taken the opportunity to get a qualification and benefit from this. Half a million people have sought to change their lives through this policy. There is not a single person on this side of the chamber who would describe that as a waste.

Something I cannot understand about the attacks that are coming at us today is this fundamental difference about how we perceive education and skills in our country. Education and skills are not just about the individual. We are opening the doors of opportunity to half a million people through this policy. It changes not just their lives but the lives of their families and the lives of our broader community. Who could be against that but the divisive, negative opposition that sits opposite us?

Of course, this policy is critical to our desire to build more homes in our country. Thirty-five thousand people have already trained in housing and construction skills through fee-free TAFE. We've added another 20,000 to that in our last budget and, of course, the Prime Minister has just announced this policy is now going to be permanent. This is a really good and important thing for our country and a big contrast. The Liberals want to cut funding to housing, reduce your choices and saddle you with more debt. Labor wants to invest in housing, give you options and make things fairer for the next generation.

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