Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

I'll tell you about the bill, Senator Ruston. The bill would mean that 40,000 Australians would have the government supporting them in a shared-equity approach that you know would make a difference.

Of course, Senator Ruston says that she wants to own her own home—good. Australians should own their own homes. They should. But some of us need support. While the government is working hard in the long term with the property sector to build more homes against the opposition largely from our opponents in the Greens political party, who haven't seen a housing development that they support, 40,000 people would get an opportunity to be supported by the government to get shared equity.

A set of consequential amendments sit with the bill, which will provide Housing Australia with the powers to administer the Help to Buy scheme on behalf of the Commonwealth. Something was made of this during the debate about what those amendments mean. They would mean they seek to support the concurrent operation of Commonwealth and state and territory laws. They will enable the states to preserve the operation of their laws while also providing key protections for the Commonwealth to ensure the effective operation of Help to Buy. That approach of working together with the states, rather than what the Morrison government did, which was never meet with the states and then blame-shift to the states, is in complete contradistinction to what the Albanese government is doing here in partnership with the states.

Once the bill is passed, as I said, 40,000 low- and middle-income Australian households will be able to access homeownership with smaller mortgages, lower deposits and more-affordable repayments. How could any person oppose a nurse who can't get the capital together but could, with the government's support, be able to purchase their own home and have smaller repayments? Why on earth would anybody stand in the way of that? But you are, because of venal, partisan self-interest. Help to Buy will help ordinary people get into and stay in their own homes. We support them. The Liberal and National parties can't wait to undermine their opportunity to get into ordinary housing.

The bills represent just a small part of what is a $32 billion agenda in housing. It is the biggest agenda from any government in living memory. It is an ambitious housing agenda that will make a difference. It will make a difference for ordinary people who want to buy homes and need more housing supply. The government is putting its shoulder behind the wheel and not engaging in Trotskyite student politics like those that Senator McKim engages in. He engages in Trotskyite student politics instead of action. What we have done for renters, who Senator McKim pretends to be interested in, is the biggest jump in Commonwealth rental support that there has ever been.

The dishonest campaign about this from Senator McKim and his colleagues in the Greens will go on and on and on, but I tell you what: a meme or a social media post has never built a single home, helped a person buy a home or helped a person to get more affordable rent. What the government's broader approach will do is to mean more homes are built, more homes are funded through the states and more homes are available for low- and middle-income earners. Of course, this will never trouble any of the people in here, who—without making assumptions about where people's personal circumstances are—all have secure homes. But it's going to make a big difference. These bills—focusing on the narrow circumstances of what these bills would achieve—would mean that 40,000 people's lives would be changed, and that's not good enough for you. You'd rather have zero than 40,000 people's lives changed for the better.

All sorts of claims have been made—claims that it would have an inflationary impact. This is something in common between Senator McKim and Senator Bragg, It's just nonsense. It is not supported by any sensible economic analysis. The idea that this number of homes would have that kind of impact is wrong. All it would do is mean that low- and middle-income earners get a decent shake out of the housing system. I'm proud of these pieces of legislation. I urge senators to actually think about the faces behind the scheme—the people. If you can go down to the supermarket and look in the faces of nurses and teachers who can't afford homes, you've got less concern for the interests of ordinary Australians than I thought you did. I urge the Senate to support the bills.