JULIE COLLINS:
Our Help to Buy shared equity program will be life changing for those 40,000 Australians that will be impacted by this program. It is obviously just one part of our government's ambitious housing agenda. We're talking about more funding for homelessness. We're talking about more money for social and affordable housing. We're making changes to get more Build‑to‑Rent, and we want to support more Australians into home ownership. This was an election commitment that we took to the last election, and we've been very clear we think this legislation should be supported on its own merits. It will be life changing for 40,000 Australians, and bring back the Australian dream of home ownership for those 40,000 Australians.
We have already supported over 100,000 Australians into home ownership with the changes and the expansion we have made to the Home Guarantee Scheme. We now want to help more Australians into home ownership, particularly low‑ and middle‑income Australians that wouldn't have an opportunity to get into home ownership otherwise. This program is tightly targeted to not increase house prices, despite what you might hear. Frankly, I'm surprised that the Liberal Party, the party who says they support home ownership, is not supporting this program when they very clearly should be supporting the program. They have in the past had similar programs. They should be supporting this – similar programs have been supported by state Liberal governments in the past, and this program should be supported on its own merits.
JOURNALIST:
The Greens are pretty clear that they're not willing to budge on this without a deal. Are you prepared to let the legislation die rather than do a deal with the Greens?
COLLINS:
What we think is that the Greens and the Liberals should reconsider their position. We're talking about home ownership for 40,000 Australians that otherwise wouldn't be able to get into home ownership. That's up to them to decide. This is our election commitment. It's our policy that we took to the last election, and frankly, the Greens and the Liberals need to support it.
JOURNALIST:
Is there any room for compromise on negative gearing?
COLLINS:
We've been very clear we're not for dealing on this legislation. We expect it to stand on his own merits, and the Liberals and the Greens should reconsider their positions.