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

I thank the member for Macarthur. He is a fierce advocate for housing for his constituents, but he's also one of the most loved people in the parliament. Mike, it's great to get a question from you.

At the upcoming election there's going to be a very clear choice on housing. There's the Labor government which has brought the Commonwealth back to the table on this life-defining issue for millions of people. A government which is pulling every lever we have to build more homes, to help renters get a fairer deal and to help more Australians into homeownership. And there's an opposition which completely checked out of housing when they were in government and have consistently tried to stop our government from taking action on this matter.

On this side of the House, we've set a bold and ambitious target of building 1.2 million houses over five years. Those opposite think boldness and ambition are a bad thing because they'd actually be held accountable for their failures. On this side of the House, we are investing a landmark $32 billion to combat a housing crisis that's been a generation in the making. Those opposite have said they'll cut $19 billion out of that program—what a dumb idea, cutting funding to housing in the middle of a housing crisis.

On our side of the House, we're helping 35,000 tradies build the construction skills that we need through fee-free TAFE. On their side of the House, they call fee-free TAFE 'wasteful spending'. On our side of the House, we've helped 130,000 Australians into homeownership through an expanded Home Guarantee Scheme. On their side of the House, they managed just 60,000 in their decade in office.

On this side of the House, we're investing in 55,000 social and affordable homes. We spent more on building new homes in our last budget than the coalition did for the entire nine years combined of their government. On this side of the House, we've helped a million Australians with a 45 per cent increase in Commonwealth rent assistance. On their side, they didn't increase rent assistance once above CPI in a decade—not once.

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