Sally Sitou (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. What is the Albanese Labor government's plan to help more Australians into homeownership, and what is standing in the way?

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

The Noalition.

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

The Minister for Housing will cease interjecting and cease using that term.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question. My neighbour in Reid is fully aware of the pressures that are on housing in our shared community of the inner west of Sydney, which is why Labor's Help to Buy program, aimed at helping 40,000 Australians to buy a home of their own, is such a practical initiative. We're stepping up to get Australians the assistance they need to buy a home. It's a pretty simple scheme. It's one that's worked around the world. It's worked in the UK; it's worked in New Zealand; it's worked in WA for decades. That's why the clue is in the title: Help to Buy.

The Liberals, of course, never want to help, and the Greens don't want people to buy. They're against homeownership. So perhaps you can understand why this has occurred. But Australia's housing crisis didn't happen overnight. The former government didn't bother to have a housing minister for the entire time they were in office. They just didn't bother. Their solution today is much the same—stand in the way, block help, play politics instead of progress. Of course, the Greens political party have blocked more homes than they've ever built.

There's a plan at the moment in my electorate for housing at Taverners Hill, along Parramatta Road. There's a plan for housing at the old Balmain Leagues Club, which has been derelict for decades, just there wasting away. But those opposite think there are too many houses being built there. It's on Victoria Road, and the local state member for the Greens is worried about overshadowing onto Victoria Road—that the drivers who drive along that main thoroughfare might get a bit of shadow!

We on this side support more homes, and that's why we're getting on with the job of building them. Now, this isn't the be all and end all. We have record funding for social and public housing. We're also trying to get our program going for build to rent. So, we want every aspect: we want more public housing, we want more private rental housing and we want more homeownership—all three. And we want to provide assistance to states and territories for planning, to make sure local and state governments are approving more housing. We know this issue is too important to wait, and it's beyond my comprehension how those in the Senate continue to block.