Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before I was interrupted, I was explaining to the chamber that the attitude of the Liberal and National parties is that you should not act nationally on housing but you should see housing acted upon locally—and so nothing gets done. The Greens have a view that you should act nationally but not locally, because they won't support any local social and community housing projects in their electorates. So nothing would get done under the Greens if they were ever in power. But we on this side of the chamber believe in acting nationally and we believe in acting locally. It's the big difference between us and them, and between those two and the crossbenches.

Australians deserve access to housing that's stable, secure and affordable. Proper housing fosters a sense of security, dignity and community. Homeownership is a great enabler. It impacts our ability to get a job, complete our education, maintain social connections and achieve good mental health and physical health. In my electorate we face the challenge of housing affordability but also of supply as Ipswich and the areas surrounding it continue to grow.

When I held a jobs roundtable locally in 2022, before the Jobs and Skills Summit, that was the biggest issue: housing and housing affordability. Whether you were the meatworks at JBS Dinmore or the West Moreton Hospital and Health Service, getting housing for local workers was the biggest issue, and that came up again and again.

That's why we're determined to clean up the mess we saw from those opposite, and that's why we've got a big, ambitious housing agenda. It's about helping to increase supply so we can make sure that the housing market is there and people can find rental accommodation at a price they can afford. That's why we increased rental assistance, by the way, and that's also why we're working with the states and territories—to get a better deal for renters. We act, and the Greens posture; that's the difference.

When we came to office, we inherited a housing system in need of urgent and serious repair after a decade of neglect because those opposite believe that housing is a state issue, and the federal government wiped their hands of it, whether it was the Abbott, Turnbull or Morrison governments. They wiped their hands of housing. Those opposite have a lot to answer for when it comes to housing. They failed to grasp that helping to improve the housing system should be part of the government's social contract with the Australian people. On our side we believe in increasing housing affordability and supply, and that helps tackle cost-of-living pressures, which are our highest priorities.

We've seen falling homeownership in the Australian community, and that's what they're experiencing. Between 1971 and 2021, the rate of homeownership amongst Australians aged 30 to 34 fell from 64 per cent to 50 per cent. While almost 60 per cent of young Australians on low and modest incomes owned their own home 40 years ago, now it's only 28 per cent. I know that from my own daughters, who were in that category, and I know how challenging it was for them to find the housing that they needed. The fact is we've had a housing crisis for some time, and it's harder to buy a home than it has been in previous generations.

Those opposite put this all in the too-hard basket. That's why we're taking steps. This legislation is part of a suite of things we're doing. If you listened to the speeches from those opposite, you'd think this was the only thing we were doing. It's almost like they've got political amnesia and have forgotten that they voted against the Housing Australia Future Fund, the $10 billion commitment we made to help people in need across the country. But we've done so much more than that.

In the lead-up to the 2022 election we announced that we had a help-to-buy policy as one of our key commitments to tackling the housing crisis, and this particular legislation gives effect to that. It'll help put homeownership back within the reach for 40,000 low- and middle-income households who have been locked out of the housing market. It's open to applications for four years, with 10,000 places available each year, and, of course, it will be on a pro rata basis for states and territories.

This shared equity scheme will make it easier and cheaper for people to own their own home. The Commonwealth government will support eligible homeowners with an equity contribution of up to 40 per cent for new homes or 30 per cent for existing homes. I've heard a number of those opposite talk about the fact that it's 50 per cent government ownership as if they haven't read or even looked at the commitment that we've made. This means that the financial risk and benefits, or capital gains or losses, will be shared between the participant and the Commonwealth in proportion to their interest.

Homebuyers will need a minimum two per cent deposit to participate in the scheme and qualify for a standard home loan, with a participating lender to finance the remainder of the purchase. It means that those people who participate in the scheme will need a lower and smaller home loan, providing long-term relief. The benefit is that Australians will be able to buy a home with a smaller deposit, a smaller mortgage and smaller mortgage repayments—a triple dividend.

During the period of the loan, the homebuyer can buy an additional stake in the home when they're able to do so. It currently takes homebuyers in Brisbane—which is just outside my electorate, although I've got a small part of Brisbane—nearly five years to save for a deposit. For people in regional Australia, it's taking, on average, a decade to save for a house deposit. The Help to Buy scheme can help speed up the process, by allowing for a smaller deposit and savings on home loans, as well as the overall mortgage.

It has been estimated the scheme will cut the cost of a mortgage for a new home in Ipswich, in my electorate, by up to $250,000, while in some parts of Australia the saving could be up to $380,000. This is life-changing for many prospective homebuyers in my community and elsewhere who have been locked out of the security and stability of homeownership and otherwise would not be able to buy a home. It's not just a leg up to help Australians into homeownership; it's a life-changer. It provides lasting mortgage relief for participants in the scheme and, critically, a lifeline for people who want to share in the great Australian dream. Robert Menzies talked about the dreams of homeownership in his 'Forgotten people' speech. Those opposite seem to have forgotten about what Robert Menzies had to say all those years ago, in the 1940s. This will help renters buy a home with a smaller mortgage, which they can afford to repay, instead of renting for the rest of their lives.

Help-to-buy schemes operate, by the way, in various states and territories. Those opposite said almost nothing about the fact that these schemes operate in states and territories around the country. They've never excoriated coalition governments around the country for having this type of scheme, yet, when we're doing it, somehow it's a sort of communism or Marxism or socialism. They've never criticised coalition governments at a state level for doing similar schemes.

The states will need to pass their own enabling legislation in order for Help to Buy to operate in their jurisdictions, while the scheme will operate in the territories following the passage of the Commonwealth legislation. I'm pleased that, in August last year, all the states and territories agreed, at the National Cabinet meeting held in Brisbane, to progress legislation so the scheme will run nationally from this year. I know the Queensland government plans to progress legislation in the first half of this year, which is fantastic.

Our independent national housing authority, Housing Australia, will administer and monitor the Help to Buy scheme, supported by a referral from the states. It's worth noting that most of the states and territories already have these schemes in place. This is a tried-and-tested model, and our scheme will build on and complement these existing programs.

Further policy detail will be settled in the Help to Buy program directions, which will be released for consultation in due course. There has been broad support, including from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, the Housing Industry Association, National Shelter, the Australian Council of Social Service and the Grattan Institute. They all support this scheme.

I know there has been a lot of interest in the Help to Buy scheme locally in my electorate—people have talked to me about it—among buyers interested in participating in the scheme as well as finance and mortgage brokers, who seem keen to recommend it to clients once it's up and running. I look forward to discussing this in my mobile office at Country Burgers on Friday night—they have the best hot chips in Ipswich, by the way!—and the mobile office I have at Ripley Town Centre on the weekend.

Keith Wolahan (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the time remaining, I'd like to make this point to the House: next to the immediate cost-of-living pressures facing this nation, there is no more pressing issue in this country than housing affordability. It is not just an issue that is discussed by young people, despairing at the lack of opportunities available to them to buy a home of their own; it's being discussed by parents and grandparents, who may own their own home—some may own more than one—and who acknowledge and despair that it has never been harder.

I remember how hard it was for my parents to buy their first home when we migrated here from Ireland. I remember the interest rates were 17 per cent for a brief period of time and the consequences that that had for our family. I've spoken to my father—he didn't go to university, and my mother didn't—and there is no way that my family now, in these circumstances, in 2024, would be able to buy a home in Melbourne. There is no way. When we look at the median wage for a household of two people and we look at the median house price in 354 suburbs in Melbourne—we're not talking about a fancy house; we're talking about 600 or 700 squares, a brick house built in the 1950s—people like my parents wouldn't be able to afford to buy in any suburb in Melbourne, even assuming they could save the 20 per cent deposit, which we know would take 17 years. We have a serious problem in this country with housing affordability.