Sam Lim (Tangney, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Housing and Minister for Homelessness. How will Help to Buy support tens of thousands of Australians into homeownership? What is standing in the way of this support?

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

I want to thank the member for Tangney for that question. Our great member for Tangney is, of course, from the great state of Western Australia. Western Australia has a successful bipartisan shared-equity scheme that has been running for more than 20 years. That is at capacity. Our Help to Buy shared-equity program will reduce the cost of a mortgage by up to 40 per cent for low- and middle-income earners. Eligible participants will only need a two per cent deposit, and the government will then support them with an equity stake of up to 40 per cent for new homes—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister will pause. The member for O'Connor and the member for Deakin—and a few others—always continually interject when this minister and a range of other ministers are speaking. I'm not going to put up with these continual interjections and disrespect, particularly to this minister. We're going to hear what the minister has to say and limit the interjections because I want to hear what she's going to say. The minister has the call.

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

As I was saying, the government will support them with an equity stake of up to 40 per cent for new homes and 30 per cent for existing homes. Help to Buy will be real support that will help lifelong renters become homeowners, including renters like Sandra from Melbourne. Sandra told me that she and her husband have 'never been able to save enough deposit to buy a home of our own and have always lived in rental accommodation'. She continued, 'We would do anything to have a secure home in which to live.'

When we talk about the Help to Buy Bill, we're talking about it being life changing for people like Sandra. It's highly targeted to help people without driving up property prices. It has the backing of experts, like the Grattan Institute, who has said that the proposed Help to Buy scheme 'would help level the playing field for first home buyers', and then, of course, the Australian Council of Social Service, who also supports Help to Buy and has said that it will:

… help balance the scales for some between those who have access to 'the bank of mum and dad' for their deposit and those who do not …

Then the Master Builders, who also back the Help to Buy scheme and our broad housing agenda, described it as 'sensible housing policies that benefit both aspiring homeowners and encourage more housing supply'.

But apparently those opposite and their new friends in the Greens think that they know better than some of the experts, because the Liberals and the Greens are standing in the way—

Honourable members interjecting—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister will pause. The minister for social services and the minister for infrastructure will also cease interjecting while the minister is speaking. This back and forth across the chamber is not helpful for the chamber. The minister has the call.

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

This life-changing support will help 40,000 Australians into homeownership, but they are standing against that. They're supposed to support Australians into homeownership, yet they don't when they are given the opportunity in this place. By voting against Help to Buy, they'll be denying those tens of thousands of Australians the great Australian dream of homeownership. They need to stop standing in the way. They need to change their position on this vital legislation. It's an election commitment that we took to the Australian people, and they should be supporting Australians into homeownership.