Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Housing and Minister for Homelessness. How is the Albanese Labor government supporting Australians into homeownership, and what are the barriers to the 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 Macnamara for that important question. I know that the member for Macnamara has been a great supporter of Labor's housing agenda, and I thank him for his support last night for our Help to Buy shared-equity scheme, which passed the House last night. Help to Buy will support low- and middle-income Australians who are struggling to buy their own home save up to 40 per cent on their mortgage. Eligible participants will only need a two per cent deposit, and the government will support them with an equity stake of up to 40 per cent for new homes and up to 30 per cent for existing homes. This means a lower deposit and lower ongoing repayments for tens of thousands of Australians.

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

The minister will pause. That's the fourth time the member for Deakin has interjected during this answer alone. And it's always on this minister as well. He is warned. No more interjections on this minister—and hopefully for the remainder of question time as well.

It doesn't matter who the interjection is from or to. We're going to limit the interjections to assist the House. I want to hear what the minister has to say, just as I wanted to hear the question.

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

Thanks, Mr Speaker. Since last night, we are now one step closer to delivering on this life-changing election commitment. This will be life changing for 40,000 low- and middle-income Australians.

I want to thank all my colleagues on this side of the House and also some members of the crossbench—the members for Curtin, Goldstein, Indi, Fowler, Kooyong, Mackellar, Wentworth, Warringah, North Sydney, Clark and Calare—who supported Help to Buy. They understand this is about help for real people, help for people like Gemma from Canberra. I've quoted Gemma from Canberra in this place before. Gemma said, 'Help to Buy will give me something to look forward to, something to work towards.' That's what Labor is focused on—getting people into homeownership.

The same, unfortunately, can't be said for those opposite and the Greens, who teamed up together, yet again. They came in here last night and voted against helping Australians into homeownership. They voted against Help to Buy knowing that it has the backing of experts, knowing that it has the backing of the construction sector and knowing that it has the backing of advocates on the front line of our housing challenges. Over here they want to talk about homeownership, but they don't vote to support more Australians into homeownership. This is becoming a bit of a habit, teaming up with the Greens. They teamed up on the Housing Australia Future Fund to delay our fund getting up and running. That fund is now established and generating returns. And, indeed, last night they did it again.

They need to go back to their constituencies, and they need to explain to people how they voted in this place, particularly the member for Gippsland and the member for Fairfax, who have written to me asking about Help to Buy. I hope they're going to tell their constituents that they came in here and voted against it. They wrote to me and voted against supporting Help to Buy. There is teaming up with the Greens, but this is about people; it's about your constituents, like Gemma and Chris and Sandra, who I quoted in this place last week. We took it to the election. It's about time those opposite supported, and the Greens need to support it as well in the Senate.