I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we meet today, and pay my respects to Elders past and present.
I acknowledge any First Nations Australians who have joined us.
Today, I want to talk about something at the heart of the Australian promise.
A home.
The language of government is so cold and abstract. We speak of tax settings and pipelines and targets and productivity.
The deep meaning of what we are talking about can get lost.
I don’t want that to happen today.
Humans need a home to feel safe.
It’s where we raise our children.
It’s where we build our future.
Housing is not an abstract economic debate. It is full of meaning, it is fundamental.
As Housing Minister, I see the damage and pain and anger when housing goes wrong.
And also – I see the joy, the safety, the security, the elation, that comes with getting it right.
This is where I want to begin.
I want you to know about a beautiful young couple, Mika and Matt, who bought their first home just around the corner here in Canberra with our 5 per cent deposit program. On their first night in their new home, they sat on the floor and ate pizza out of the box with their friends.
I want you to know about Georgia, who spent time sleeping rough. I asked her how her life changed when she was able to get into safe housing. She said ‘I started to have good dreams again, instead of only nightmares’.
Now Georgia is happily housed, and working.
Our government has just rebuilt, and expanded, the shelter that gave her a second chance.
And I want you to know about Judy. She is in her 60s, divorced, with no super, and was being pushed out of another rental in Adelaide. An everyday Australian woman, who was starting to ring around homeless shelters.
Now, she’s safe, and protected, living in a Housing Australia Future Fund home, built by our government.
Housing changes lives.
It changes lives for the better, when it works. And when it doesn’t, it can cause the deepest of human pain.
Australia’s housing market is broken.
Home ownership rates have been declining for decades. But the really massive shift has been for working young people.
Lower income young people are half as likely to own their own home than they were in the year I was born.
Many young Australians tell us they are putting off having children, because of housing insecurity.
And parents and grandparents stop me in the street, worried, and fretting, about whether the people they love will ever be able to set down roots, and flourish.
This is not just about young people. More and more older Australians are entering retirement without the security of a home of their own, and older women are increasingly falling out of the housing market all together into homelessness.
Today, I’m going to do 2 things: I’m going to explain how we got here.
And then I’ll explain how our ambitious, reforming government, is embarking, with great conviction, on the long and difficult journey of rebuilding our national housing system, so it serves the Australian people.
Australia did not wake up one morning with a housing crisis. It emerged gradually, throughout the course of my lifetime.
When I was born, young Australians could buy a home for around 3 times the average annual income.
If you worked hard, and did the right thing, owning a home would be within reach.
We had a stronger social housing system.
And our country understood that if you want housing to stay affordable, you have to keep building.
But in the 80s and 90s, Australian governments – once key providers of homes for Australians – began to step back from building homes.
At the same time, governments made it harder and harder for the private market to build the housing we needed.
Planning became slow and restrictive – systems designed to stop housing, not to get it built.
Infrastructure and land release failed to keep pace.
Construction productivity went backwards, and new techniques and technologies common in other countries were never adopted.
Skills shortages deepened.
And between the 3 levels of government – we created an administrative nightmare for every builder in the country.
Builders spend more and more of their time in the office filling in forms, instead of onsite building homes where we need them.
Most of these rules and restrictions were introduced with good intentions.
But over decades, 3 levels of well‑meaning government have created a red tape thicket that builders need a bulldozer to get through.
Over time, governments lost sight of the main game: That the way to ensure Australians can afford a place to live is to build enough housing for everyone.
Since the turn of the century, we’ve been building nearly half as many homes per person as we did in the decades after World War II.
Not because population growth was higher. But because home building fell dramatically.
Then, in 1999, the Howard government made a huge mistake. They introduced the capital gains tax discount: a big new tax break for investors.
The discount was supposed to get Australians to invest in the share market.
But the exact opposite happened. They turned established, detached homes, into the most lucrative, low‑risk investment in Australia.
Investors piled into the market.
Today, more than 80 per cent of investor lending flows into existing homes, not the construction of new ones.
So Australia created a perfect storm for housing:
A broken demand side – where more and more investor dollars chase the homes we do have.
A broken supply side – where house prices go up and up, but the market cannot respond by building more homes.
The result? You can find it in any economics textbook in the world.
House prices sharply detached from incomes.
Rents surged.
And homelessness rose in a country where we should never accept this as inevitable.
Our housing crisis was not caused by one policy failure.
It is many systems failing together.
Planning.
Infrastructure.
Skills.
Construction capacity.
Innovation.
Tax.
Finance.
Public housing.
All broken.
That’s why there is no silver bullet. No one announcement, no one budget, that will fix this overnight.
There is one final ingredient I haven’t mentioned.
Housing is not just a social and economic failure.
It is a political failure.
I’m not going to bore you with the usual finger pointing. Let me be really direct.
Governments – Labor and Liberal – have not done enough to fairly house Australians, for decades.
In their retreat, there was, I believe, a hope that a functional private housing market would work for all.
But that is not reality.
In every country in the world where housing works, government is integrally involved in making it happen.
So there we have it. A complex, long‑term crisis, with many problems to solve. And governments unwilling to step in and make big, hard decisions to reshape it.
That era has ended.
And when people write the history of housing in our country, a new chapter will begin in 2022, when our government was elected.
The first Commonwealth government in 70 years to put housing at the heart of the national agenda.
That is what our Homes for Australia Plan is all about.
It is a long‑term national reform agenda for housing.
Today we’re releasing an update on that plan.
This document brings the major expansion of our housing agenda in this year’s Budget into our long‑term approach to housing reform.
A plan that started with reforms in 2022.
A plan strengthened in this Budget.
And a plan we will keep building on in the years ahead.
At its core, the Plan is about 6 things:
Building the homes Australia needs.
Levelling the playing field for first home buyers.
Making renting fairer and more affordable.
Growing social and affordable housing.
Closing the housing gap, in partnership with First Nations Australians.
And strengthening support for Australians experiencing homelessness, crisis, and family violence.
Today, I want to focus on the first 2 pillars – because they sit at the centre of the debate Australia is having right now.
Our government is unapologetically pro‑supply.
If we want housing to be more affordable for Australians, we need to build, build, build.
Our Prime Minister has led the development of the National Housing Accord, where governments and industry have committed to an aspirational target of building 1.2 million homes over 5 years.
This is the largest home building effort in Australian history, and it’s already helping us build a better housing system.
Why? Because targets drive change.
The Property Council has said, and I quote, ‘The national housing target is already a success in 2 key ways – recent widespread state planning reforms have only happened because targets and incentives exist – and boosting housing supply is now top of mind for all Australians.’
Our ambition for home building has been backed with serious investment and reform.
More land. Faster approvals. Better infrastructure. Simpler rules. More tradies. Modern construction.
Together, new data from Treasury tells us that Homes for Australia investments are unlocking 420,000 homes over the next decade – including 65,000 from this Budget alone through our new $2 billion Local Infrastructure Fund.
Investing in last‑mile infrastructure – the pipes and paths – is a huge priority for our government. We’re now investing $6.3 billion, with more to come.
The National Housing Accord has been 2 years of effort, and we are starting to see real progress.
When we came to government, housing commencements had fallen 29 per cent in a single year. Now, they are rising again – up 26 per cent over the last year alone.
We are making good progress, but we have got a hell of a lot more work to do.
And there are 2 big immediate areas for new reform.
First, we need to modernise the way we build.
Countries around the world are using prefab and modular construction to build homes faster, efficiently and at greater scale.
Australia has been slower to adapt.
That is why we are backing prefab and modular housing through a national certification scheme, and support through the National Productivity Fund.
And a new $40 million investment we are announcing today for a national ‘Kit-of-Parts’ program.
It means building smarter and faster, using standardised components like bathroom pods, wall panels and facades.
And this is just the beginning. I’m a huge believer in innovation in housing. We have to get faster and more efficient if we are going to get on top of this national challenge.
Second, we need to keep improving our planning rules – the rules that decide what can be built and where.
We need more homes where many Australians want to live – close to jobs, transport and services. Yet some of the most desirable parts of our capital cities are absorbing – quite unfairly – very limited amounts of new housing.
Restrictive planning is estimated to add about $140,000 to the cost of the average new home.
We have seen significant planning reform in some states and territories.
We need to see more.
That is why tomorrow I will bring together Housing, Planning and Building Ministers from every state and territory for the first meeting of its kind in Australia’s history.
To discuss the reforms underway and the further changes we can drive together.
Our $2 billion Local Infrastructure Fund will be a part of the discussion.
This is not just free money. States will only access that funding if they continue ambitious housing reform to boost supply.
And we’re looking to the next wave of reforms, particularly on red tape and regulation.
We’ve made progress on environmental approvals, on planning and on the National Construction Code.
Today I’m announcing that the Productivity Commission will undertake an inquiry into the remaining regulatory barriers holding back housing supply. To help us tackle the next wave of reforms.
Building homes matters. So too does the question of who gets to own them.
And I think you would have picked up already from my speech – that I am fiercely and proudly committed to delivering the opportunity of home ownership to more Australians.
If you talk to Australians who are renting, many will tell you that the biggest barrier they face is the deposit hurdle. Australians are now saving 11 years for a deposit. Almost 17 if they live in Sydney.
That is why we expanded Labor’s 5 per cent deposit scheme. It brings the time it takes to save a home back to just a few years – that’s where it was decades ago.
A quarter of a million Australians have used the program to buy a home.
I don’t care what your politics is, that is a massive number of Australians who have the keys to their first home, because a Labor government saw their aspiration, and helped them realise it.
But for us, that is not enough.
Australians are working incredibly hard to save for a home of their own.
Picture a young first home buyer turning up to an auction after more than a decade saving for a deposit.
Standing next to them is an investor on the same income, bidding for the same home.
Negative gearing concessions alone can give that investor a hundred‑thousand‑dollar head start in how much they can bid.
At a time when housing affordability is under such pressure and home ownership rates are declining, we just cannot keep tilting the playing field away from first home buyers.
It is not fair.
And we need to change it.
And that is why we’re introducing our legislation before the parliament today.
These tax reforms are carefully designed.
Negative gearing arrangements for current landlords will remain in place.
And, if you want to get ahead by investing in property – good on you. We will back you. You can still get access to tax concessions. But to get them, we want you to do something for the country: build a new home.
But the impact doesn’t stop there.
Our tax changes will get 75,000 Australian households out of renting, and into a home of their own home.
And they will put first home buyers on a level playing field, making a fairer system for everyone.
But of course, the budget we delivered is about more than housing.
It’s about the kind of tax system we want – and the kind of country we want to be.
Our broader tax reforms help level the playing field for working Australians too.
Because we believe that taxes paid on income from assets should be better aligned to taxes paid on wages – wages earned by nurses, teachers and retail workers.
That’s what fairness looks like.
And it’s why we’re also delivering tax cuts for more than 13 million Australians.
Under our 5 tax cuts, the average worker will receive up to $2,800 a year back in their pocket. And we’ll always look to do more.
And of course, we will continue consulting with stakeholders, as is standard practice for significant tax reforms – and as we made clear on Budget night.
Ambition, aspiration and the choice before Australia
We are having a parliamentary debate right now about aspiration.
Let me be clear about where Labor stands.
There is no greater aspiration than owning a home of your own.
For most Australian families, this is the most important financial decision of their lives.
Our tax changes are all about helping Australians build financial security for themselves and their families.
Lots of surveys tell us that we are already at the point where most young Australians don’t believe they will ever own their own home.
Problems like this can become so big and difficult, that people start to give up altogether.
Not because they lack ambition.
But because they no longer believe the system will reward their effort.
After all, what is the incentive to work hard, when the thing that matters most to you, is out of reach no matter what you do.
And once a country starts losing belief in aspiration, the consequences reach far beyond housing.
Helping more Australians buy a home is central to our plan for housing. It is central to our vision for the country.
If we don’t step up and act, home ownership will fall further out of reach. And we will end up living in a country where the only way you can get into your own home is if you inherit wealth.
And that’s not Australia.
Now, we have a big fight on our hands when it comes to these reforms.
Because the Coalition are the only people in Australia who can’t see the pain this is causing, and who are fighting to preserve the broken status quo.
Under Angus Taylor, the Coalition is locking in behind a system that has locked out a generation from home ownership.
Angus Taylor has said the Coalition will ‘fight like hell’ against housing reforms.
They won’t just vote against them, they’re saying if they win the next election, they’ll reverse them.
Think about that.
The Coalition are not just opposing the solution.
They are telling you that if they get elected, they’ll do everything they can to recreate the problem.
They will take your taxpayer dollars, and use them to subsidise property investors over first home buyers.
They will wind back the 5 per cent deposit program – which they say is for the children of billionaires.
They will scrap Help to Buy.
And rip up all our social and affordable housing programs.
They even want to scrap our housing targets, and the reform that sits underneath them.
What is their plan?
They don’t have one.
Which maybe we shouldn’t be surprised by – remember that for most of the 9 years they were in office, they were so checked out they didn’t even have a Housing Minister.
For Australians watching at home, this is what I want you to know.
We stand for change.
For tackling a broken system. And helping Australians get a fair shot at building wealth in our country.
For making the hard decisions. The right decisions.
The Coalition are for the broken status quo. No plan for housing, government back, crouched in a ball, pretending nothing can be done.
That is the choice facing Australia.
Not an abstract debate about tax policy.
But a choice about what kind of country we want to be.
Do we want an Australia where home ownership is a realistic aspiration for ordinary Australians?
Or do we accept Angus Taylor’s vision – a future where owning a home depends on wealth you inherited rather than work you did yourself.
This government rejects that future.
That’s why we have a plan for housing for Australia. It started in 2022. Our Budget built on it 2 weeks ago.
And we won’t stop there.
There is more work to do. And every budget, every election, we are in there, pushing for more and more to be done.
We are throwing everything at this challenge, and tackling it from every angle.
Because for our government, we believe, that aspiration belongs to every Australian.