Peter Khalil (Wills, 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 working to help renters and to help more Australians own their own home? And what obstacles stand in the way?

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

I want to thank the member for Wills, who is one of the parliament's most tireless advocates for housing. I'm pleased to update the House that our government's Help to Buy legislation has now received the support of both chambers of the parliament and will become law. I want to acknowledge Minister Collins for the really important work she did to bring us to this point.

My first visit as housing minister was to the member for Wills' electorate. We sat with a group of low-income young people and they spoke to us person-to-person about the sense of genuine despair many of them feel about their prospects for homeownership. Help to Buy is a law for them. Help to Buy is a law for Australia's childcare workers, aged-care workers and disability workers, people who need and deserve the help of government, and now they're going to get it.

Help to Buy is a really important part of Labor's bold and ambitious $32 billion housing agenda. This law has received widespread support from around the housing sector and in the community, and indeed from across the parliament. When the House voted just earlier on this really important reform, there was only one group that tried to stand in the way of childcare workers getting homeownership; it was the nasty, negative reckless Liberals and Nationals.

Mr Speaker, you're not going to believe me but, as recently as yesterday, the coalition promised that, if they are given the chance, they will abolish Help to Buy, abolish that support and deny tens of thousands of Australians their aspirations for homeownership. I say to those opposite: good luck convincing the Australian people that you are a party that supports homeownership when you've to come into this parliament, voted against this measure and said and said you'll abolish it if you are elected to government.

It is not too late for the coalition to demonstrate concern for building housing supply. This is a measure that the parliament will soon consider. Labor's build-to-rent legislation is going to come before the Senate shortly. If it is passed it is going to result in the building of 10s of thousands of desperately needed additional homes for our country. It is another bill with really widespread support around the parliament. But what are the coalition going to do? They cannot claim they want more homes built in this country and then vote against this bill. I want to give thanks to the many people in this parliament who have worked constructively with our government on housing policy, for choosing to support opportunities for people who desperately need the help of government to get into homeownership.

This election Australians are going to have a really clear choice on housing between a reckless and arrogant party of pessimism and negativity in the opposition, or a party of progress that is stepping up on housing and helping Australians build, rent and buy.