Clare O'Neil
Hotham · Australian Labor Party · Australia
“What a great question from the member for Bass. As we come to the end of question time for today, what a stark contrast this draws from the question that was just asked by those opposite—a hardworking local member who comes into this parliament week after week to advocate for her constituents, especially those who aspire to their own home…”
“I'm asked about alternatives, and the three right-wing parties of the Liberals, the Nationals and One Nation have opposed every measure that our government has put in place to support first home buyers.”
“When they found out they were eligible for this program, Christy said they were over the moon. They've been able to get into their own home. Now, they're living much closer to town, their 10-year-old son no longer has a long bus ride to school, and he gets to ride his bike instead.”
“They want to scrap help to buy, which helps 10,000 people a year into their own home, and they want to double down on taxing every person in this country to subsidise investors to outbid first home owners in every auction in this country. As we come to the end of the budget sitting, this is becoming abundantly clear.”
“Today I want to pay special tribute to a pivotal and unique leader in my community, John Charles Saunders, who, tragically, passed away in March this year. John served our country in the 3rd Division Signals regiment and continued that service over many years as secretary of the Clayton RSL and region 2.”
“He brought with him that real specialness and that wisdom and humour that we get from that very unique Australian generation who saw challenges face this country, the likes of which my generation has never had to experience.”
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“A wonderful question from the member for Leichhardt. He is such a tireless advocate for housing in his community. We're doing some really amazing things in his local area on housing. We're building more homes. There are 11,000 renters in his community who have got that 50 per cent increase to Commonwealth rent assistance. And I know that the local member will be particularly proud, because our government has already helped 1,106 of his constituents buy their first home through our 5 per cent deposit program. For four decades, our country has not been building enough homes. This failure has left us with a housing crisis that's been cooking for a generation. We know that the solution here is pretty straightforward. We've got to build, build, build.”
“The member for Maribyrnong asked me a question about housing, and I want to confirm the numbers. There are 929 social and affordable homes in planning or construction in Maribyrnong that are funded by our government, and I confirm that none were built by the coalition in nine years in office, and no homes were funded or built in Victoria in that nine years.”
“You're not going to believe this, but the truth is that in the nine years they were in office they did not build a single social or affordable house in the whole state of Victoria.”
“I thank the member for Maribyrnong for her really important question. She is one of our housing guns, a group of members of parliament who have come into our chamber in 2025, and they share my view that our housing policies are amongst the most important things the Albanese government is doing for our country. We believe that because we see our housing policies changing the lives of the people that we come to this chamber to represent. In the Maribyrnong electorate alone there are now 929 social and affordable houses in planning or construction, almost a thousand homes in her electorate alone, and I want the chamber to know how many social and affordable homes the coalition built in her electorate in nine years. Can you guess the answer? The answer is zero. In three years we have got 929,000 homes on the go; in nine years they built none.”
“We'll continue to advocate for the protection of minorities in Syria and for families here in Australia who are desperate for news, for safety and for justice. This is not just an issue in my local community; it's a global call for peace and dignity. I stand in solidarity with the Druze community and other minority groups in Syria and with all people whose lives are threatened because of their beliefs.”
“I have reiterated the Australian government's call for Syria's interim authorities to protect civilians, respect minority rights and pursue an inclusive political transition. Australia continues to support vulnerable communities through our humanitarian program and international aid. Since July 2024, nearly one in five of our offshore humanitarian visa grants have gone to Syrian citizens, and we've committed half a billion dollars in humanitarian assistance since 2011, including $30 million this year alone. I know these policy updates, numbers and statistics can feel really distant and disconnected when your loved ones are in danger, so I want to be clear: I stand with you, and our government stands with you.”
“There are threats of every heinous nature being made against this community. It's really hard for us in Australia to fathom how this must feel, in a country like ours where we live with the strong belief that other people can have freedoms and that those freedoms will be protected. To the Druze community and to other affected minority communities in Australia: your grief is heard, your fear is understood and your resilience is so admired by your community. We thank you for your advocacy. It's because of your courage, letters, visits and voices that so many of us in government are aware of the urgency of what is happening to your friends and relatives. I've raised these concerns directly with my cabinet colleagues, and I know many of them share the deep concern that I have for this matter.”
“I rise today in solidarity with the Druze community and other minority groups in Syria who are facing violence and persecution in Suwayda and surrounding regions. Recently I met with three greatly loved constituents Imam, Safa and Hadi of the Saab family, who are leaders and members of our local Druze community in my electorate of Hotham. They sat in my office and shared with me the most intensely distressing accounts of what's happening in Suwayda. I want to acknowledge the members of the Druze community who are in the gallery this morning. These parts of our community are proud Australians, and today they are in enormous amounts of pain because of what's being inflicted on their community in their home country. One story about a young woman who was afraid to leave her house because of her religion has stayed with me.”
“I rise today in solidarity with the Druze community and other minority groups in Syria who are facing violence and persecution— A division having be en called in the House of Representatives— Sitting suspended from 09 : 32 to 09 : 4 5”
“For the last two weeks, our government has spent its time building more homes and expanding pathways to homeownership, and those opposite have spent that fortnight in a complete, chaotic mess. They've spent their time not talking about real policies that actually exist but making up scare campaigns about housing taxes that don't exist. They've spent their time in the Senate not trying to build more homes but trying to stop the construction of 80,000 new rental homes. On the five per cent deposit program, on Monday, the Leader of the Opposition said that she loved it so much because it was her idea. At the same time in the Senate, the shadow minister was calling it bizarre and ridiculous. We're focused on housing, and we'll continue that work because that's what Australians elected us to do. (Time expired)”
“And, of course, as I've mentioned to the parliament every single day this week, 180,000 Australians have already got into their first home with the backing of our government. We know there's more work to do. That's why, just in the past week, we've announced this landmark expansion to the five per cent deposit program on 1 October and, of course, more work to build more homes more quickly through the immediate actions that we're taking out of the Economic Reform Roundtable. Just to refresh the parliament's memory, that includes the pausing and streamlining of the National Construction Code and the fast-tracking of environmental consideration of more than 26,000 homes. There's a really clear contrast to be seen here.”
“We're focused on three things: building more homes, making it better to rent and getting more Australians into homeownership. And of course, Speaker, you've heard me talk about the real progress we're making on this agenda for Australians. Half a million homes have been built since we came to office. Year on year, housing approvals are up 30 per cent in our country. In less than four years we've got 28,000 social and affordable homes in planning or construction, with 4,000 social and affordable homes completed. Remember, we're comparing ourselves to nine years where the coalition built 373 homes around this country—absolutely disgraceful! Now, on top of that, a million households around the country are benefiting from almost a 50 per cent increase to Commonwealth rent assistance.”
“I want to thank the member for Calwell for his question. I know he's incredibly proud that, to date, 2,360 people in his local community have got the opportunity to get into their first home with the backing of the Albanese government. I know that he can't wait to get back to Greenvale and to Broadmeadows and talk to his community about the landmark expansion that we are making of this program, with five per cent deposits for every single first home buyer across this country. The days of a 20 per cent deposit for a first home are gone, and we're going to be very proud to deliver this on 1 October. It's been a really important two weeks for us on housing, as you've seen our government build on that $43 billion agenda that we've got in place.”
“So it's fantastic to be able to provide that practical support to this community, and I thank the community for welcoming me to their art show a couple of months ago. Thank you so much for the time of the parliament to talk about some of these critical issues in my electorate. I can't wait to contribute more as we work together in this term ahead.”
“Our government has led the country in the strongest possible condemnation of the illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine by Russia. We continue to work at a diplomatic level to do whatever we can to support the Ukrainian government. But I want to acknowledge the extraordinary Ukrainian community that we have here in Australia. I'm very lucky to have a Ukrainian community centre in my electorate, in Noble Park, and it was fantastic to be able to announce an investment of $225,000 during the election. That money will restore and enhance the Ukrainian community centre in Noble Park. They are a fantastic community. They were fantastic even before the invasion, but now this community is welcoming, supporting and providing that beautiful love and support to Ukrainians who have fled the war.”
“We have a vision together of a community centre where we have older people doing computer classes, young people learning Greek dancing, young people learning the Greek language and people who are that bit older finalising and putting those finishing touches on their grasp of an ancient language. This is a really exciting development for the community. I want to thank those two leaders, and I also want to mention our school captains, Alexander Korlos and Natasha Kaniadakis. The students at this school are just incredible. I loved visiting the school during the campaign. I'm there really frequently, and they're just a bunch of legends, so thanks so much, guys. Another important area of contribution that our government has is to support our local Ukrainian community.”
“It was wonderful during the election campaign to be able to work with this community on a really big contribution that our government will be making to what is really the centre of this community—the Greek Orthodox Church of Oakleigh Sts Anargiri and Oakleigh Grammar, which is the school that sits next door. These are two absolute institutions of Greek Melbourne. They perform incredibly important roles for our Greek community. It was fantastic, during the election, to be able to announce $4.5 million to back culture and inclusion through the construction of a Greek cultural club in Oakleigh. I want to thank Chris Damatopoulos and Mark Robertson for their absolutely impeccable advocacy around this project. This is going to mean a transformative difference to our ability to pass on that incredible Greek culture to the next generation.”
“I am so lucky to represent the heart and soul of Melbourne's Greek community. In fact, I get to not only represent Oakleigh in the federal parliament but live in Oakleigh myself. I really can't put into words the warmth and the love with which this community embraces not just me but my family—my kids, my husband and my mum. It's amazing to live amongst Greek Australians. This is a culture that celebrates food, art, philosophy, politics, caffeine, drinking and dancing. So, I'm just like, 'Tick, tick, tick; this is fantastic; I love it!' This community is absolutely brilliant.”
“This club was that place where they felt at home, where they felt loved and accepted for whoever they were. GEMSA, I think you're amazing, and I'm so pleased to be able to support you, so let's get that grant out the door and your beautiful new club rooms built. We're also going to see investments at Ross Reserve in Noble Park that will see female inclusive change rooms and upgrades to athletic tracks. We've got Jack Edwards Reserve, which is coming online pretty soon. We've got Princess Highway Reserve in East Oakleigh and Namatjira Park in Clayton South, which will also receive funding, and we're pretty excited to see what that's going to mean for accessibility, safety and inclusion in parks right across my electorate. I want to mention one piece of Hotham that I haven't talked about yet.”
“One of those big investments that we were able to announce during the election campaign was almost $4 million to create equitable, inclusive and accessible playing fields and parks across the electorate—and this includes a few local projects that I'm very excited to champion: We've got Bailey Reserve in East Bentleigh, which will receive new facilities for women and girls, supporting clubs like the Glen Eira Moorabbin Softball Association, or GEMSA. I have to tell you about GEMSA. What an amazing group of women. I had so much fun with Minister Wells going out and announcing the grant for their organisation. I don't think I've ever felt the warmth of inclusion at the level I felt at this sporting club before. I spoke to so many women who are involved in the club who, frankly, have had some troubles in other parts of their lives.”
“It was an appropriate and really important moment for our community to celebrate the work of this remarkable individual, who received an award on Australia Day We remember Adam McKay OAM of Oakleigh, who was, of course, the founder of Helping Hoops. This is a charity that revolutionised access to basketball for children and young people. Adam's legacy lives on in the thousands of lives that he touched through sport and inclusion. I pay tribute to his work today, and I'm so pleased that the Australia Day Council was able to give that appropriate recognition to him on Australia Day. In this new term of the Albanese government, we're delivering real investment for the people of Hotham.”
“He's championed so much good that's happened in our local area, and he remains a staunch supporter of access to sports and recreation for people of different abilities, and also of growth and prosperity in Hotham. Jim, mate, I'm so pleased for you. Congratulations. It is very well deserved. We also honour Senior Sergeant James Egan APM of Bentleigh East, who passed away in November 2024. He has an amazing story. He was a proud Bangerang and Gunditjmara man. James was—would you believe it?—the longest-serving Aboriginal employee in Victoria Police. He stayed in that organisation. He was a mentor. He was a trainer. He was a change-maker who helped shape the next generation of officers and improve cultural safety right across the force.”
“So I want to acknowledge that community and thank them for welcoming me so beautifully. I can't wait to come back and visit you again very shortly. Hotham is a place of service, and I want to acknowledge some outstanding individuals from my electorate who were appropriately recognised in this year's Australia Day awards. Jim Magee OAM, my old friend from Bentleigh East, was a very long-serving councillor and a fierce advocate for all-abilities access and for protecting services for the vulnerable. I think we've got a Jim Magee in lots of parts of Australia, and we're lucky to have them. Jim is one of those amazing people who is, in every walk of his life, making a contribution and trying to help people step up and get involved, whether it's in sport or education or aged care or any of the other things that he's passionate about.”
“It was beautiful, and I wish I had the capacity to go back there every single week with my family. The temple leaders, Ashwin Bindu, Ranesh Rao and Raj Saini, are incredible leaders in our community. This is a community that really got going around 2015, when the priest house was first established. We have seen devotion in this particular community grow massively across Melbourne, and when I visited recently I got to experience this teeming joy and energy of celebration around spirituality. I just wish I could paint the picture for you: a suburban street and a community of hundreds of people gathering together to celebrate, to support each other and to build and support a great life in our country. It just made me so damn proud to be Australian, and I absolutely loved it.”
“Around dinner tables in Hotham, you'll hear Tamil, Khmer, Mandarin, Dari, Greek, Hindi, Vietnamese and pretty much every other language there is in the world, and they're spoken with pride. My community is home to temples, churches, mosques, market gardens and manufacturing floors. It is a place where Australia's fantastic story of opportunity is being written every single day. In Hotham, difference is not just tolerated; it's celebrated, and it's the very best thing about living in our beautiful area. We have a large and very important Indian community that's growing in my electorate of Hotham, and I want to say namaste to my beautiful constituents—in particular those from the Sri Venkata Krishna Brundavana temple in Murrumbeena, who recently hosted me for the most amazing visit.”
“And to my partner, Brendan, who is my best friend and the finest person I know: a life being married to a cabinet minister can be pretty thankless and unpleasant at times, but he believes in what I do, I believe in and support what he does, and I love him from the bottom of my heart. I want to mention some specific groups around Hotham who deserve a little bit of recognition in this parliament. Hotham is a place of extraordinary diversity. It is just amazing. If you have not come and visited us in Melbourne's beautiful great south-east, you need to get down there. We have something from every part of the world, the best of every part of the world, represented in our community.”
“Being the member for Hotham is the absolute privilege of my life, and none of us come to this chamber without the support of our families. I want to thank Fee for her help and for the care that she shows to our whole family. We would not survive without you, Fee. I want to thank my mum, Anne O'Donovan, who taught me everything I know about life, really, and she's always at the end of the phone when Brendan and I are desperate for a date night—thanks, Mum. To my beautiful kids, Elvis, Louis and Greta: the joy these three bring me is just incredible. They're the best.”
“Behind every great campaign is an amazing office, and I want to acknowledge my electorate office staff in this last term. To Natalie Durkin, Lachlan Newman, Jane Foley, Natalia Genovese, Sophie Federico, Elijah Oakford, Dylan Kumar and Emma McGrath-Cohen: what an amazing team we were. I love you guys so much. Thank you so much for your kindness, determination and public service. Election day was absolutely epic. We had hundreds of volunteers staffing booths, we had some experienced branchies who were showing that leadership role and we had first campaigners alongside them, and I hope everyone who came along for this ride with us will be back there again in a few years time. With this amazing momentum, I'm really excited about what we can achieve next election.”
“I am very lucky in Hotham to live and work in a community where most of my constituents either were born overseas or have a parent who was born overseas. I want to thank our fantastic Vietnamese community—Dr Kimson Vu and SEMVAC—for running phone banks nearly every day, as well as the AUMSAI Sansthan Temple for providing lunch to all our booth captains, as well as our wonderful local councillors, including Nicky Lou and Richard Lim, and the Cambodian Association and their president, my dear friend Youhorn Chea. Thank you so much for your support and leadership. To Jane Rollason, Glenda Garde, Pat Dillion, Anne Barker, Joy Graves, Paul Klisaris, Hadi Saab, Lana Formosa, and Luca Ragni: thank you for going above and beyond; I will never forget your efforts.”
“To our phenomenal yard sign team—and Deputy Speaker you know, as I do, the work that goes into identifying the sites all over the community where you're going to have your yard signs and making those yard signs, putting them out and then taking them down again after the election—Alan Ide, Peter Wenborn, Gregory Neal and Dolphin Sharma: thank you so much for your efforts across Hotham. We had a lot of phone banking going on, but I want to mention by name Phillip Graves, Amuna Ebenezer, Sue Rocco and Olivia Carroll. Thank you so much for the work you did connecting us into our community and talking to my constituents about the work that was being done. As always in Hotham, we have incredible support from our proud multicultural communities.”
“We knew it was an election year, we gathered together at the Oakleigh RSL and we asked our community to get involved, mainly branch members but not all of them. We asked people to step up and to be part of something bigger than themselves and make that big contribution to their local neighbourhood. We did train stations throughout January and then all the way up to that epic election day on 3 May. It was four months of hard work and probably a year of preparation before that. We had hundreds of volunteers helping us out—giving out flyers, phone banking, doorknocking and letterboxing. I can't thank everyone individually, but I want to give a few special mentions. To Andrew Williamson, Mark Giles and Mark Harding, three marvellous south-east Melbourne men: thank you for your leadership, your expertise, your tireless support.”
“We are so grateful for your efforts. Deputy Speaker Mascarenhas, I know you would have seen the same thing in your community of Swan. The commitment, the grit and the grace that my community showed me—the work they did with me—got us to a point where Hotham is now the safest Labor seat in Victoria. I can tell you, we have lots of ups and downs in politics, but that endorsement from my community means everything—that the people I represent in this chamber voted in such numbers to return our government to its position to be able to continue the good work that is improving their lives. I want to come back to our Hotham branch members, because I'm thinking back to January, when it all really began in earnest.”
“They did not happen by inevitability. They happened because brilliant Labor people got themselves elected to parliament, stood up for what they believed in and reshaped our nation. We now have the opportunity over the coming three years to do it again. We have an amazing opportunity to build on that legacy. We're going to govern with purpose, and we are going to deliver for the people who placed their trust in us. I sometimes think that people outside of politics may not realise the complexity, the difficulty and the amazing feat of running a campaign in your local community. Our campaign in Hotham was built on the shoulders of volunteers who gave us their weekends, their evenings and their hearts. The Hotham branch members, in particular, were the beating heart of this operation. We could not have done it without you, comrades.”
“They come together to sit with us in a Labor caucus that, really, for the first time, represents modern Australia. That's something that I am incredibly proud to be a part of. I joined the Labor Party when I was 16 years old because I believed, as I now know, that Labor governments—particularly back-to-back Labor governments—change the lives of the people that we care about and reshape our country. This will be the 12th federal Labor government that Australia has had since the Second World War, and in that time our party—the one I am so proud to be a part of—has laid the foundations of our beautiful, great, modern country. Medicare, paid parental leave, superannuation, land rights, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, the accord, the National Disability Insurance Scheme—these achievements were not accidents.”
“This year Australians made a choice. They chose a future shaped by fairness, ambition and care. They chose Labor, and they rejected division and negativity. What an incredible victory we had on 3 May. Ninety-four Labor members now sit in this place, each of them bringing with eloquence the hopes and dreams of their communities, the strength of their convictions, and the promise and vision of a better Australia. I'm honoured to stand amongst them. One of the very best experiences I know we've shared since the election has been hearing the first speeches of the 24 new Labor members in this place. I was so moved by every single one of these individual journeys of 24 people who have come to our chamber through very different pathways, through a variety of life experiences and from a plethora of backgrounds.”
“It wasn't enough that they spent a decade on these benches doing absolutely nothing about a crisis that was building before their very eyes. It wasn't enough that over the last three years those opposite have been consistently housing hypocrites. What we've seen those opposite do is complain daily in the media about what's going wrong, and then, every time they've had the opportunity to do something about it, they've come in, blocked it and delayed action on housing. Don't forget they voted against the Housing Australia Future Fund; they're at it again today in the Senate. We've got a clear plan: build more homes, get renters a better deal and get more Australians into homeownership.”
“Our build-to-rent scheme is unlocking 80,000 new secure rentals across the city. I'm asked about alternative approaches. I have to say, coming into this new parliament, I was filled with a sense of optimism about the kind of housing conversation that we were going to be able to have. I thought, 'Those opposite have been sent a really clear message at the election, and I hope they're going to listen to it.' I thought we'd have a bit of fresh air in the parliament and a few new faces, and maybe we'd have an opposition that would come into this parliament and work with us constructively to try to address one of the biggest problems in people's lives. Imagine my disappointment when I saw the activities of those opposite over the last few weeks on housing.”
“That is why, under this Prime Minister, we are tackling the housing crisis from every possible angle. We're delivering and we're seeing real results for Australians right around the country. Since we've been elected, 180,000 Australians have bought their first home under our five per cent deposit program—and, in case you haven't heard, we're expanding this program to all new homebuyers from 1 October. The days of the 20 per cent deposit are over. It is not just that. A million households around our country have got an almost 50 per cent increase in Commonwealth rent assistance. Half a million homes have been built around our country since we've been in office. New housing approvals are up 30 per cent. We've got 28,000 social and affordable homes in planning or construction.”
“What a great question from our fantastic new member for Melbourne. We had to worry a bit about the old member for Melbourne, but there is no question that we have a pro-housing member in place in an electorate where, without question, the biggest challenge facing her constituents is our nation's housing crisis. I know that she's very proud that, thanks to our build-to-rent changes alone, more than 11,000 secure rentals are in progress in her electorate, with more on the way. Australia's housing crisis has been 40 years in the making. For all of the complexities involved here, there is one simple truth in the heart of it. For that 40-year period, our country has not been building enough homes. Today the housing shortage has become one of the biggest pressures on the lives of Australians.”
“I present the Housing Australia Investment Mandate Amendment (Delivering on Our 2025 Election Commitment) Direction 2025 and a copy of my ministerial statement.”
“They can be a part of the solution this term or they can keep doing nothing. We've got a new Leader of the Liberal Party in Canberra. We've got a new opportunity for those opposite to work with the government on housing. And I've said time and time again, in the last parliament, and I'll continue to say it in this one: our door is open to work with the coalition on housing, as it is to all our parliamentary colleagues. While those opposite might continue to block and delay progress on housing, we're getting on with the job. This term we're going to: And, of course, we know the main issue here is we've got to build, build, build, and that's exactly the work our government's doing. Our government's getting on with the job. We're building more homes. We're making it better to rent. And, yes, we're making it easier to buy.”
“This takes six years off the time it takes for them to save a deposit, and they'll save $26,000 in mortgage insurance. I talk to young people who have used this program. Six years—it changes their life. This reshapes the experience of their 20s and 30s and gives them the opportunity to set down the roots and get them those better opportunities we want them to see. Deputy Speaker Young, you might think that the opposition would get behind a policy like this, because it helps give young Australians a fighting chance in the housing market. But they didn't. In fact, you're not going to believe this: the shadow housing minister called this announcement 'bizarre and ridiculous'. There is nothing 'bizarre and ridiculous' about helping first home buyers around this country get into their own home. Now the coalition has a really clear choice here.”
“It's thanks to every single member on this side of the House that our government can make this a reality. Take the members for Solomon and Braddon, who represent first home buyers at the northern and southern ends of our country. In both Devonport and Darwin, a first home buyer can now buy a $500,000 home with a deposit of $25,000. They'll save up to $15,000 in mortgage insurance and up to $80,000 that they would have paid in potential rents while they were saving for their first home. Take the member for Bendigo, who has been an absolutely outstanding advocate for the young people in her community who want better housing opportunities. Our government has already helped 1,100 first home buyers to buy a home in Bendigo with a lower deposit. A first home buyer in Bendigo can now buy an average $620,000 home with a deposit of $31,000.”
“Meeting Lachie and Abbey was just amazing, because we sat down with this fantastic young couple and we heard straight from them how they would never have been able to buy their home without the support of our government. And they talked about the simple pleasures that they are getting to enjoy as homeowners, that feeling of knowing that they can't be moved on, of having their friends around for movie nights, of thinking about starting a family down the track. It's worked so well for them that a friend has now used the scheme to buy a house across the road, and other friends are looking to use the program as well. Well, the expansion of the five per cent deposit scheme will mean that even more Australians can get a place of their own—just like Lachie and Abbey—from 1 October.”
“Our government's five per cent deposit program is already changing lives for hundreds of thousands of first home buyers around the country. And the proof's in the pudding. We're really proud, because in our first term there were 6,000 more first-home-buyer loans each year compared to the coalition's previous period in office. We've already lifted support and we're already seeing those first-homeowner numbers lift. Since coming to office, our government has helped over 180,000 first home buyers buy with a lower deposit. On Monday, the Prime Minister, the member for Canberra and I were lucky to visit two of these buyers, who are right here in Canberra—Lachie and Abbey. With the government's support, Lachie, Abbey and Chilli the dog have been able to buy a townhouse in Lawson with just a five per cent deposit.”
“It means that this is not just about small apartments, units or homes in hard-to-reach locations but about the average home in our capital cities and our regions. These changes are important. They aim to change what homeownership looks like for an entire generation of young Australians. The median house price in Australia today is $844,000. Five per cent of that is about $42,000. The last time that $42,000 covered a 20 per cent deposit for a median home was in 2002—more than 20 years ago. This shows you the scale of the change we are making here. We are not only helping first home buyers get into a home earlier; we're helping them save billions of dollars. In the first year alone, first home buyers using this scheme are expected to avoid $1.5 billion in potential mortgage insurance costs. This is a game changer.”
“There are going to be three changes that come in for this scheme on 1 October. The first is that, for the first time, there will be no caps on this scheme. That means that there is no limit to the number of first home buyers who can now buy a home with Commonwealth government support. It means that for our regional Australians and for our single parents, who previously had limited places under this scheme, they now have unlimited access to this program. Second, we are removing income caps. That means that hardworking first home buyers and families who were previously locked out of this scheme, for the first time, will be eligible to get support. Third, we're increasing property price caps so they're in line with average house prices.”
“This week the Prime Minister and I announced that our government is bringing the dream of homeownership back within reach for tens of thousands of Australians every single year. From 1 October this year, the days of 20 per cent deposits for first home buyers will be over. The Albanese government is delivering on its commitment to give all first home buyers the opportunity to buy a home with just a five per cent deposit, and it's not just that. We're doing it three months ahead of schedule. We're doing it three months ahead of schedule because we can provide that help more quickly and, if we can, we should. Our government is unequivocally and unashamedly on the side of people looking to get into their first home, and we're backing them all the way with our five per cent deposit scheme.”
“They might dream to buy a house big enough for a growing family, close to work and near their communities, so they go house hunting and to auction after auction. We hear it from our constituents—the heartbreak of going weekend after weekend to auctions, just to see houses blow way past their budget as investors outbid them by hundreds of thousands of dollars. We know that in Sydney today the average house price is $1.5 million. With $180,000 these young people still can't compete. So what can they do without support? Their options just don't look good. These are the Australians that our Labor government was elected to this parliament to serve. That is why we made such an important announcement this week, which is going to help the people who I've referred to.”
“For the average first home buyer it would take more than 13 years to save up that much money. We're talking about a young person who is going to be saving and renting until she's 38 years old. If she decides to buy without a 20 per cent deposit, she's going to get whacked with mortgage insurance—paying up to $43,000 just for mortgage insurance for that first home. If she does haven't that money, and she can't get her parents to chip in, then she's probably one of the many young people around our country who feel that homeownership is a million miles out of reach. It gets even tougher for young families who are dealing with kids. Families who have got kids—they've worked hard and they've saved for years. They might have put away $180,000 for a home deposit. That's enough for a 20 per cent deposit on a $900, 000 home.”