Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the government's Help to Buy Bill 2023 and Help to Buy (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2023, and I thank Senator Tyrrell for her contribution, including quoting the incredible Mr Kerrigan—very well done from Senator Tyrrell!

These bills form just one part of this government's ambitious housing agenda, and this is an agenda that is absolutely about getting more Australians into their first home. It's an agenda that is about unlocking the investment that is desperately needed to address housing supply and housing affordability in this nation. It is an agenda that is, for the first time in a decade, squarely focused on providing the federal leadership, the Commonwealth leadership, that we need to build more homes and to make them more affordable.

The proposition in front of the Senate today is a simple one, and it is simply to support the aspirations of the 40,000 Australians who we can all assist today to get into homeownership with Help to Buy. It's that simple. It's a simple proposition about helping 40,000 people get into homeownership—the nurses, the teachers, the early childhood educators who could benefit from this scheme. It's about helping older single women who are approaching retirement and who can't afford to get into homeownership right now. It's about helping lower income couples who are trying to get ahead and who need that help to buy their first home. And later in the week, we'll have the chance to help thousands more people into homes too, homes that they can rent through our build-to-rent plan.

We have these two bills in front of the Senate this week, all while we're working to build 1.2 million homes in this country, to build the supply that we desperately need to make homes more affordable in Australia today and to get more people into homes that they can live in and make their lives in.

Now, we all know that the coalition does not support building more homes for Australians. They don't have a single policy to build a single new home in this country. And we know that they will not support these bills today. We have their record to look at. We have their record of a decade in government, where, for the majority of that time, they did not even think it was important enough to have a housing minister in this country. They presided over a decade where they did not lift a finger to build a single social and affordable home. They presided over a decade where they were completely missing in action, as we could see this housing crisis grow, as demand for homes clearly outstripped supply.

You would think that the Greens political party would come into this chamber today and direct some of their criticism at the coalition for failing, over a decade, to lift a finger to do anything about housing supply in this country. And you would think that the Greens political party would come into this chamber and work with us today to fix the mess that was left by the coalition, that was left by those opposite. You would think the Greens, with all their talk about housing over the last couple of years, would come into this chamber today and vote for bills to help 40,000 people who really need it into homeownership. You would think that they'd come into this place and vote for bills that will build more secure and affordable rental accommodation, our build-to-rent bills, later in this week too, but they've got form, as you know.

You would have thought that they would have supported the Housing Australia Future Fund to invest billions of dollars into social and affordable homes, instead of blocking it and delaying it for months—homes just like the 13,000 homes that we announced today through the Housing Australia Future Fund, homes that could have been on the ground sooner for the people who really need them if the Greens had not played politics and blocked and delayed those homes rolling out. But it's not the Greens' business model or their political model to actually work with the government on constructive solutions. And it's not the Greens' business model to put the criticism where it's due, which is with the coalition for presiding over a decade of absolute denial about what was happening in housing in Australia. Their business model is just to attack the Labor government, who is actually doing something about the housing crisis.

My message to the Greens today, as we look at this Help to Buy Bill and as we look at the build-to-rent bill later in the week, is: sure, attack Labor—we know that that's your business model. We know that that's your political model. We know it's who you are and what you do. But do not attack the 40,000 people who need these homes that we have on the table today. Do not attack those people. Do not attack the single women who are struggling to buy and who would benefit from this Help to Buy scheme. Do not attack the low-income families who would absolutely be able to get into a home under this Help to Buy scheme. Do not attack the essential workers—the early childhood educators, nurses, paramedics and teachers—who rely on this scheme getting through to be able to get that foot in the door and buy themselves a home with these Help to Buy bills. Don't do to those people what you did to the people who rely on the Housing Australia Future Fund. Don't make them wait. Don't get into the business of blocking and delaying. Don't get into the business of playing politics and attacking Labor when what you are actually doing is attacking the very people who will benefit from these bills today—the 40,000 people to whom we want to give a leg-up to actually get into homeownership today.

Again, we know that it's your model to attack Labor. We see it every day in this chamber. We see it in the pointless motions that get put forward. We see it in the jawboning political performances of the spokespeople of the Greens political party. We see all of that. But you have the chance to do something real, something that will actually impact people and will actually get 40,000 people—people who would not otherwise get into a home—into a home by supporting these bills. So attack the Labor Party all you like. Attack the Labor government all you like, but do not throw under the bus the 40,000 Australians who would benefit from these bills, get a leg-up, get a foot in the door and be able to buy their own homes. Do not do that.

We've seen what happened with the Housing Australia Future Fund. We've been able to announce 13,000 homes that are going to mean so much for people—so much social and affordable housing being provided to people that would have been provided sooner if the Greens had not blocked and delayed those homes. So I appeal to the Greens to pass these bills and support our Help to Buy legislation, because the Greens know that each and every housing measure makes a huge difference to people's lives. We all know that we need to get on with building 1.2 million homes over the next five years. We all know we need to help people into homeownership, and we all know that shared-equity schemes like Help to Buy are an absolutely critical way of doing just that. So the message to the Greens is to just get this done. Just get this done!

This is a scheme that will give thousands of people a leg up to buy their first home, because we know that servicing a mortgage and pulling together a deposit are two of the largest hurdles to homeownership. This scheme directly tackles that. It will see 40,000 Australians moving into their first home sooner. In partnership with a panel of lenders and the state and territory governments, the federal government will provide equity contributions of up to 30 per cent for existing homes. To support housing supply efforts, first home buyers will be further incentivised with a 40 per cent contribution for new builds. We want to encourage more new builds because that is critical to supply.

This scheme will genuinely help those who have, for too long, been just out of reach of homeownership. It will help because all that is needed is a deposit of two per cent to get involved—just two per cent, with the backing and security of the government. That is life changing for people. It will cut off years of saving for people. It will cut off years of effort they have to put into pulling together a deposit. It will fast-track homeownership for so many people, making what is just a dream for some a reality. That's what we have in front of us in the chamber today, a practical measure, a practical step that we can take to get more people—good people, good Australians, worthy people—into their first homes. The scheme has been set up appropriately. There are price caps and targets for eligibility. Help to Buy will avoid inflating house prices and making the situation worse, and it will absolutely be directed at supporting those who need it most.

We saw all of that. We saw all of its support in the Senate economics committee inquiry, which I chaired, into the Help to Buy scheme. The evidence could not have been clearer. We heard from AHURI. They said:

We certainly would like to see the bill passed. Shared equity programs have been some of the … most effective housing policy interventions.

We heard from Master Builders Australia. They noted:

The Help to Buy scheme adds to existing first home buyer incentives as part of a whole-of-housing policy approach to boosting supply and affordability.

We heard from National Shelter. They said:

National Shelter is supportive of shared-equity schemes to make homeownership more accessible and affordable, alleviating both the deposit required and the repayment amounts.

At the Senate inquiry, Housing Industry Australia said these bills are 'an important part of the mix to address our current housing shortages'. We also heard from housing advocacy group Everybody's Home. They said they 'support shared-equity models as they improve access to housing for those who need it'.

While the Greens political party is no housing expert, it even supported shared-equity schemes when it suited them to do so. A shared-equity model was, in fact, part of their 2022 election platform, but, provided with the option to establish one, they're actually standing in the way, which only makes the case again that this is about the Greens' business model, this is about the Greens' political model, and this is not about practical housing outcomes for Australians. That's the Greens for you: attack your own policy if it gives you a vehicle to attack the Australian Labor Party. So, again, for 40,000 people, this Help to Buy scheme will be life changing.

We have the opportunity in the Senate this week to help those people. This is targeted at worthy Australians who deserve to have the opportunity to get into their own home. It's targeted at people like older women struggling to buy a home. It's targeted at our essential workers, like our early childhood educators, paramedics and nurses, to get them into homes they can afford with small deposits and smaller mortgage repayments backed by the government. This is targeted at low-income families to help them get a foot in the door of a home they can call their own.

Now, we expect the Liberals and the rest of the coalition to oppose these measures. They had a decade to do something about housing supply, and they were missing in action the entire time. The Greens, on the other hand, talk a good game about housing. This is their opportunity to actually take a practical step and do something about it. This is their opportunity to help 40,000 people get into their first home, and they know that this is one of a suite of measures that we are putting in place to deliver more homes, and more affordable homes, for Australians. We know the only reason the Greens are opposing this is that it is their business model. Attack us all you like. Don't attack the people who need these homes right now.