CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS
Dr LEIGH (Fenner—Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury) (10:51): Last week I joined the Prime Minister and housing minister at the North Canberra suburb of Jacka. Jacka is named after Albert Jacka, the first Australian to receive the Victoria Cross. Before he served in the First World War, he worked as a forester, which raises a question: could a worker on a forester's wage buy a secure home today?
To address that, the Australian government is boosting housing supply across the country. In Jacka, skilled tradies are building 57 social and affordable homes backed by $50 million in Commonwealth funding through the Housing Australia Future Fund. These homes are due to welcome their first residents within a year.
Our $47 billion Homes for Australia agenda will unlock 420,000 homes over the next decade. Through our five per cent deposit scheme, a quarter of a million Australians have already been helped towards their first home. We're changing negative gearing so new investors are encouraged to finance new homes, which means more construction and a fairer contest at auction for first home buyers.
In Jacka and across the country, Labor is building that future. Yesterday, Pam Muston organised her 10th Kowen trail marathon, an event that raises funds for the Wamboin Rural Fire Brigade, turning hills and kilometres into community strength. Hundreds of runners chose to run the 12-, 21-or 42-kilometre courses through Kowen Forest before returning to a breakfast cooked by the local firies.
I've had the privilege not only of running plenty of Pam's races but also of running alongside her, so I can attest that she's not only a great race director but also a terrific ultramarathoner. Pam has won the Glasshouse Mountains hundred-miler three years in a row, raced the 240-kilometre Coast to Kosci on multiple occasions and runs the Sri Chinmoy Canberra Trail 100 race each year.
Her 2025 ACT Local Hero nomination recognised the admiration Canberrans have for Pam. I also pay tribute to Jenny Kellett of Hawker. At 71, Jenny holds multiple Australian age group records for the half marathon and marathon.
Two years ago she ran the Chicago Marathon in three hours, 23 minutes. Last year she completed the Comrades Marathon in nine hours, 29 minutes. Jenny keeps proving that older athletes can produce speedy times.
Pam and Jenny both took up serious running in their 50s, and these two remarkable women inspire many to run further than they might have imagined.