CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS
Ms KEARNEY (Cooper—Assistant Minister for Social Services and Assistant Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence) (10:21): I'd like to tell you about two lovely young people from my electorate, Sam and Thomas. Sam is an incredibly hardworking young woman who moved from regional New South Wales to Melbourne to go to university. She worked in hospitality and retail and did every shift she could.
She studied hard, and today she works full time in event planning. With every pay cheque, she puts money aside—saving, sacrificing and doing everything right. Thomas did the same.
He's been saving since he was 18. He worked as a lollipop man and then studied to be a lawyer, a degree that took some time for him to complete. He's still saving and still dreaming.
After all that hard work, both are still renting. That is not the Australia that I grew up in. The dream was that it wouldn't matter what your job was—if you worked hard, you could one day own a home.
When I was a nurse in my mid-20s, with two kids, I bought my first home in Thornbury. I can't imagine anyone in the same position believing that's possible today. If you walk through Reservoir, Preston or Northcote on any weekend, you'll see long lines of people fighting for a rental.
In fact 40 per cent of people in my electorate of Cooper are renters, many of them paying more than 30 per cent of their wages on rent. That is why the Albanese Labor government is rebuilding the whole housing system. We're building 55,000 social and affordable homes, delivering 80,000 rentals with long-term leases, investing in crisis and transitional accommodation for those fleeing family and domestic violence, increasing Commonwealth rent assistance by almost 50 per cent, working with state and territory governments to overhaul rental rights and investing $10 billion through the Housing Australia Future Fund, which is the biggest investment in social and affordable housing in more than a decade.
For those trying to buy their first home, we've launched the five per cent deposit program for all first home buyers, and single parents will only need a deposit of two per cent. Homeownership shouldn't just be reserved for those with intergenerational wealth. Already more than 800 people in my electorate of Cooper have bought their first home through this program—800 dreams realised, and many more to come.
A home isn't just bricks and mortar. It's security and it's a foundation to build a life, to plan, to save, to raise a family and to retire with dignity. Right now too many older women, particularly single women, are retiring into poverty or homelessness, and that should never be.
We're not pretending we'll change everything overnight, but we're laying the foundations for lasting change for new homeowners, for renters and for those needing housing support, because the alternative, the coalition's record, was nothing short of a disaster. After nearly a decade in power they had built just 373 homes. They never saw housing as a human need, and we do.
Every Australian deserves a safe, affordable place to call home, including hardworking young people like Sam and Thomas.