Source: Prime Minister of Australia
ANDREW LEIGH, MEMBER FOR FENNER: Good afternoon, everyone. My name’s Andrew Leigh, the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury, and for the purposes of today, the Federal Member for Fenner. It’s a real delight to be here on Ngunnawal land with the Prime Minister and Housing Minister to inspect this great social and affordable housing development. We’re here in the suburb of Jacka, named after Albert Jacka, who won Australia’s first VC. But before he went off to fight in World War One, Albert Jacka was a forester. One of the things I wonder today is whether someone on a forester’s wage would be able to afford a home the way things were left to us under the Liberals. That’s why we’ve invested so strongly in housing, including right here in my electorate. It’s a real pleasure to see these apartments that will be available as social and affordable homes in less than a year from now. My pleasure now to hand over to the Prime Minister.
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Secondly, on another event on the other side of the world, just a shout out to the Socceroos. An amazing game yesterday afternoon. I’m sure that people throughout Australia were watching and cheering on our team, that were underestimated before the game against Türkiye. But the goals by Nestory Irankunda and Connor Metcalfe were both extraordinary goals against, on the break, after what were extensive and effective defensive strategies put in place by the team and led of course by the coach. So, to Patrick Beach, who saved so many shots on goal, and to the entire team, they worked as a unit and to everyone there in Vancouver celebrating – including some members of the press gallery, it must be said, there on holidays – good on you. And it’s fantastic that so many Australians have travelled to North America to cheer on the Australian Socceroos team and we look forward to the games against the United States and Paraguay, and then to the next round where things are looking pretty hopeful that we’ll reach there as well.
Look, it’s fantastic to be here. We’re amidst this construction of 57 new social and affordable homes. This is a part of the Housing Australia Future Fund. This is a fund that was blocked by the No-alition of the Liberals, the Nationals and the Greens and One Nation for a long period of time in the Senate. They said that it didn’t matter. Well, it does matter. These homes will be homes to Australians who need that increase in social housing. This will make an enormous difference. This is $50 million of Commonwealth expenditure on this site. It’s one of the sites where we’re building 55,000 public housing units and homes right around Australia. That compares with 373 homes, which is the total number of social housing dwellings that were built during the former government in their almost decade in office. What we have done is thrown everything at supply, whether it be public housing through the Housing Australia Future Fund, the private rentals through Build To Rent, or whether it be Help to Buy our shared equity scheme or other schemes as well, including the 5 per cent deposits that have helped 250,000 Australians buy their first home. All of these programs have been critical in increasing housing supply but also increasing access to housing.
But we need to do more, which is why we’ve changed some of the property arrangements to make sure that if you are someone who’s invested in negative gearing, you’ll continue to keep that investment. But if you’re a new person who wants to invest in negatively geared properties, then you’ll have to invest in new builds, building assets not just for yourself but assets for the nation as well. And that’s why these changes are so important so that young people who want to own their own home can go along to an auction and not have to compete unfairly with an investor who gets tax breaks that you simply don’t have access to going forward. These measures are really important. There’s nothing more important than having the security of a roof over your head. And that is primarily the purpose of housing, exactly that, to put a roof over the heads of Australian families and so that they can have the good life that we want every Australian to be entitled to. I’ll turn to Clare and then we’re happy to take questions.
< CLARE O'NEIL, MINISTER FOR HOUSING:
Today we’re here to look at our homebuilding activities. The PM’s just mentioned there we’re on a path here to build 55,000 social and affordable homes right around the country. Remember that we are doing this effectively from a standing start. When we came to government in 2022, that was after a period of almost a decade where the Commonwealth barely built a home. 373 homes over nine years. We’re building 55,000 homes over five years. We’re really proud of these efforts. Now I said my favourite thing is meeting the tenants who will one day live in these homes and I want all of you to come back and look at this when it’s finished and meet the people whose lives will be changed by this housing. Every home we build changes the life of an Australian and their family.
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Think about the global fuel crisis that has just occurred and think about whether everyone in public life would be in a position to go to our Asian friends in Singapore, in Brunei, in Malaysia, in China, in South Korea and Japan and say we have a relationship that is important of mutual interest in our region. We need to make sure that we continue to have fuel supply. You look at what we have managed to, we hope that the conflict has ended, but you look at what we’ve managed to achieve. Prior to Easter, when I did the address to the nation, the Coalition were asking questions in the Parliament and saying that there would need to be restrictions on access to fuel after Easter. Immediately afterwards they dismissed the visits and the work that we did with our partners in the region and said that was a waste of time. And what we have achieved here, unlike many countries in our region, is to deliver that security of supply so that today we have more jet fuel, petrol and diesel in Australia than we had on February 28th when this conflict began. That hasn’t happened by accident. That’s happened due to relationships and by good policy through the use of Export Finance Australia to purchase fuel on the spot market. That’s what serious political parties of government are able to achieve when they’re focused on the needs of the Australian people. That’s what we’re focused on.
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