Source: Prime Minister of Australia
KATE THWAITES, MEMBER FOR JAGAJAGA: Good morning, everyone. I’m Kate Thwaites, I’m the Member for Jagajaga. It’s an absolute pleasure to be welcoming the Prime Minister, the Housing Minister, and my State colleague, Anthony Carbines, here today to Rosanna, where we are going to be putting 45 new homes just here. As you can see, they’re just about ready to go. So, that will be people in our community getting a safe and secure roof over their heads, and I know how much that means to people around here. When I am walking around the electorate and talking to people, people are saying to me, not just young people, but parents, grandparents, they’re saying that they want younger generations to have the opportunity that they have had, that they want that promise, that Australian promise of people getting a job, working hard, and being able to have a secure roof over their head. And, of course, that’s what our government is all about, and that’s what we see here in our community, where we have these 45 new homes coming online. So fantastic to be here and wonderful to have the Prime Minister here today.
< ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER:
Now, Angus Taylor, in his reply to the Budget on Thursday night, importantly said that programs like this, these 45 homes that will be lived in in just a few weeks’ time, that this program will be abolished. Just one of the measures that they said they would get rid of in their Budget on Thursday night. So, we’re throwing everything at housing supply and at opportunity, including in our Budget on Tuesday night, where we recognise that people who have negatively geared properties can continue down that road and to secure a benefit that comes from that, but that for new people who want to go into investment properties, it has to be new builds, new supply. And the difference between the two approaches is simply this: if someone chooses to invest in an investment property and to negatively gear it, then if it’s an old property, then previously, that would benefit their future wealth and build up their assets. If they invest in a new build, it not only does that still, but it also invests in the assets of the nation, and the wealth of the nation, which is why this is good policy. So, whilst we’re throwing everything at the housing issue, the Coalition and the three right-wing parties now in the National Parliament are all opposed to all of these measures. They voted against the Housing Australia Future Fund, now they say they’ll abolish it. They voted against Build to Rent, now they say they’ll abolish it. They say they will vote against our tax changes to better align the taxation system with actually equalising, not giving that advantage to investors over homeowners for the first time for existing properties, and that they’ll reverse it. This is the same mob, of course, that said not only did they vote against our tax decreases, but they said they’d reverse them as well. We are the party of aspiration. There is nothing more Australian about aspiration, than the aspiration to live in your own home, and that is what we want to give people the opportunity to do. And programs like this are the other part of the equation in increasing the stock and supply of social and affordable housing. Just think about this – if we had not been elected, where we are standing now would not exist, would not exist. These 45 homes. And if we are not re-elected, then there won’t be projects like this with 45 new homes springing up all around the country, that’ll be a part of history, something Australia used to do. Well, we’re concerned about the future, and we’re concerned about opportunity, which is why we are so proud to be here today. And I’ll hand to our fantastic Housing Minister, who’s done such a good job in developing our $47 billion Homes for Australia Plan, of which the Housing Australia Future Fund is a central component.
< CLARE O'NEIL:
Now, the contrast with the Liberals could not be clearer. We’ve got Labor levelling the playing field for first home buyers and building more homes for the country, and the Liberals bulldozing our social and affordable housing programs and leaving first home buyers floundering in a broken system. Someone had to step up and do something to change the situation, and that’s exactly what our government is doing.
Now, I want to spend just a minute on home building. We’ve got a housing challenge facing the country that’s been building for 40 years for one single reason – we have not been building enough homes. And if we want to improve affordability for Australians, we’ve got to build, build, build, because building more homes will create more affordable housing for Australians. Now we are tackling that problem from every possible angle. We’re investing in skills, we’re recognising construction skills when migrants come here and are able to help us with this task. We’re reducing red tape, and we’re making sure that we actually do something the Commonwealth did a long time ago, and that is roll up our sleeves and build homes ourselves. I want the Australian people to understand our commitment is we are on a pathway to building 55,000 social and affordable homes for Australians. Every one of those homes will change a life, and I’ll hand it to back to the PM to take questions.
< JOURNALIST:
< PRIME MINISTER:
< JOURNALIST:
< PRIME MINISTER:
< JOURNALIST:
< PRIME MINISTER:
< JOURNALIST:
< PRIME MINISTER:
We – if there’s no more questions, can I just give a shout out to Delta Goodrem, who finished fourth in Eurovision this morning and did Australians proud. We were all cheering on, watching SBS, watching the coverage as the votes rolled in. And Delta Goodrem, I think, is someone who can be very, very proud of her efforts, and all Australians are proud of Delta. Well done.