Minister Michael Sukkar:
Good morning, it’s wonderful to be here at Ringwood Lake, in my electorate of Deakin with Minister Jane Hume for some very important announcements with respect to housing. Minister Hume and I have had a wonderful opportunity to meet with Bonnie and Dee and their children, Amelia, TJ and Levi, this morning to talk about an important, new initiative – the Family Home Guarantee. The Family Home Guarantee leverages off the highly successful First Home Loan Deposit Scheme which will now allow for single parents with dependent children to purchase a home with a deposit of as little as 2 per cent. We know – and all the data supports this – that the hurdle for single parents on single incomes, to get into the housing market is getting that deposit together. The Family Home Guarantee will enable single parents to jump that hurdle with a deposit of as little as 2 per cent to purchase that home, because the Morrison Government believes that all Australians who aspire to purchase a home should be given that opportunity. There are few more important people in our society than single parents, the people who are working hard to raise the next generation of Australians and doing so in very difficult circumstances. So we’re very pleased that the Family Home Guarantee will help single parents – of which 80 per cent are women – to purchase their home.
In many cases, we support first home buyers, we support those who purchase new homes, but people who may have owned a home before and lost it in a family breakdown or other parents, will now have that opportunity. Minister Hume will say a little bit more about it in the context of women’s economic security but a really important announcement from the Morrison Government today building on the work that we’ve done with the HomeBuilder program and as I said, the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme and many other programs to support home ownership in Australia.
We’re also announcing today an extension to the First Home Super Saver scheme, a scheme which enables first home buyers to contribute concessional income into their superannuation to help them build up that deposit more quickly. At present, there’s $30,000 cap per person or $60,000 for a couple purchasing their first home, now it will be $50,000. So again, helping people jump that deposit hurdle which we think is just extraordinarily important.
We’re also announcing today a further extension of the New Home Guarantee program. Again, building on the success of the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme, in the October budget we released 10,000 places under the New Home Guarantee which were available for first home buyers who were purchasing a brand-new home. We put that in place to support the residential construction industry and the residential construction industry, between HomeBuilder and the New Home Guarantee, has been extraordinarily successful. We’ve ignited the residential construction industry around the country, every capital city, every regional centre, every small country town is seeing a building boom and the economy is recovering post Covid, largely – in my view – due to the great work that our tradies are doing in the residential construction industry.
Finally today, I’m very pleased to be announcing – along with Minister Ruston – that the Government has decided to extend SACS and ERO funding of $125 million under the Housing and Homelessness Agreement, to support states and territories to deliver their social and affordable housing obligations. An additional $125 million which will support them in funding their workforces which deliver the front-line services, homelessness services and others and for those states who chose, they’ll be able to use their respective portion of that funding towards capital and other upgrades for their social and affordable housing stock.
So under the Morrison Government we’ve seen – in the middle of a pandemic – the residential construction industry busier now than it was before. We see first home buyers at their highest level for nearly 15 years. Up from 105,000 new home buyers pre-pandemic to now 155,000 first home buyers in the year to March. What we’re doing today is building on that extraordinary success, supporting single parent families with the Family Home Guarantee and as Minister Hume will take you through in a bit more detail, also supporting first home buyers and new home buyers in getting that deposit together and purchasing their new home and of course supporting the social and affordable housing sector. It’s a great honour to be here today and I’ll ask Minister Hume to say a few words.
Minister Jane Hume:
Thank you, Michael. It is an extraordinary honour to be here today and particularly with Dee and with Bonnie and talking to their kids, Amelia and TJ and Levi. You know they say that a man’s home is his castle. Well today, the Family Home Guarantee will extend that opportunity for so many single parent families, to be part of the great Australian dream. And indeed, because so many single parent families are led by women, a woman’s home will now be her castle as well. We know that so many single parent families use so much of their income towards rent and building that deposit is so much harder for them with the demands of children. With the Family Home Guarantee, a single parent family can buy a home with as little as 2 per cent deposit. So for instance, Dee or Bonnie could buy a home around here in Kilsyth or Croydon or in Ringwood for up to $600,000 in value with a deposit of as little as $12,000 and they can divert their rent that they’re paying now into those mortgages to pay it off faster. We know that single parents are good rent payers, they’re good creditors and the banks – all 27 of them as part of the NHFIC – have said that they will participate in this scheme, allowing the Federal Government to guarantee 18 per cent of that 20 per cent deposit with single parents only contributing 2 per cent. This is all about providing choice, it’s about removing those barries to building that deposit and it’s also about giving those a hand up that need it the most.
In addition, the First Home Super Saver scheme will be extended from $30,000 to $50,000 per person, allowing both individuals and couples to turbocharge their savings for their first home deposit. About 18,500 Australians have already taken up the opportunity to save within superannuation for their first home deposit and they’ve seen the benefits of that with the returns on superannuation being so much higher than those you could ever get from a bank. So again, this is another step that will help Australians save for their first home, remove the barries, give them choice, give them opportunity, give them a hand up where they need it the most, and particularly for women, it will help secure their economic future.
Reporter:
We’ve just got some questions from our colleagues in Canberra so we’re moving straight on.
In regard to the 173 unaccompanied Australian minors in India. Just wondering what the Government is doing to bring those children and other vulnerable Australians home?
Minister Sukkar:
The Government is obviously very careful and concerned with respect to unaccompanied minors in India and we understand that in most cases those children are with close family members and that is the best place for those unaccompanied minors. In respect to the protocols and processes for returning them to Australia, we obviously have to be extraordinarily careful abut the way that we do that but the Government is determined to support those minors and ensure that they are able to return home and obviously give priority to those who are not in a circumstance where they’re with very, very close family where they’ve got that support network in India.
Minister Hume:
The National Cabinet met yesterday; we’ve already said that we’re going to remove the ban on flights from India back to Australia. There will be at least three flights that return to Darwin in May alone and those return travellers will come to Howard Springs. They’ll have two Covid checks before they get on the plane. In addition to that, after National Cabinet met yesterday, the request was made to the states as to whether they would also accept returned travellers from India and we’ve had positive responses on that. In particular Queensland and Victoria and New South Wales expect to have at least one flight return to each of those states with returned travellers from India as well, before the end of May.
Reporter:
Can you provide any details about the death of an Australian permanent resident in India after contracting Covid-19?
Minister Sukkar:
No, I don’t have any advice in relation to that matter.
Reporter:
There’s been a women’s justice rally today in Brisbane over the Andrew Laming controversy. What are your thoughts on that, and do you think that he’s fit to return to office?
Minister Hume:
Well of course everybody has the right to protest on any issue they wish to. That’s part of our liberal democracy. Andrew Laming has shown remorse for his behaviour. He’s undertaken empathy training and he’s made the decision not to run again for the Coalition Government at the next election. I think that he’s made the right decision there and I’m very pleased to say that Andrew has undertaken that training and has acknowledged that his behaviours was inappropriate.