GRIEVANCE DEBATE
Ms TRISH COOK (Bullwinkel) (12:41): I rise today to air a profound grievance on behalf of the people in my electorate of Bullwinkel and indeed right across Western Australia. My grievance is that of the legacy of housing—the housing neglect that was left behind by the previous coalition government after a decade-long failure that stripped dignity away from aspiring homeowners and renters alike.
For 10 long years, those opposite treated housing not as a fundamental human right or a cornerstone of community security but as an afterthought. They looked the other way while the dream of homeownership drifted further and further out of reach, particularly for the younger generation. Too many Australians grew up feeling that the entire housing market was stacked against them.
But housing is central to the security and dignity of all Australians. It is the foundation on which families are built, careers are launched and communities thrive. I'm proud to stand here today as part of the Albanese Labor government that hasn't just recognised the crisis but met it head on, with the most ambitious national housing agenda that we've seen in generations.
We don't just talk about housing in this building; we are actually delivering it on the ground, where it matters. Just last week, I had the immense privilege of being part of a major housing forum held in collaboration with my WA federal caucus members and colleagues. This wasn't a closed-door meeting.
It was a massive collaboration, a powerhouse of action. We brought together the federal minister for housing, Minister Clare O'Neil, alongside our WA state housing minister, Mr John Carey, and hundreds of vital stakeholders. We included local government, mayors, presidents, CEOs, community housing providers, local builders, eager investors and the tireless not-for-profit sector, and we were all in one room and completely aligned on one single mission: building more homes for Western Australians.
To see exactly what that sort of collaboration yields, the very next day I visited 19 brand-new social and affordable homes in my electorate, in High Wycombe. Minister O'Neil accompanied me there so we could see these 19 safe havens. They're more than just bricks and mortar.
They're places that provide security for people. These 19 social and affordable homes were directly funded by our landmark Housing Australia Future Fund, the HAFF. I'm looking forward to going back there in a few weeks and meeting the new residents as they unpack their boxes and get settled into their new lives with a secure roof over their heads.
This is what Labor delivery looks like. It is local, it is tangible and it changes lives. But let's look at why the HAFF was so desperately needed.
Let's look at the record of the opposition. During their entire decade in office, how many social and affordable homes did they build? They built 373.
Not 300,000 or 37,000—just 373 social and affordable homes across the nation over nine years. It is an absolute disgrace. They presided over a decade of systematic and purposeful neglect, leaving a crater in our national housing supply.
And, when the Albanese Labor government introduced the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund to fix that mess, what did the coalition do? They teamed up with the Greens to block it, stall it and delay it in parliament for months. They played cheap political games with the roofs that are literally needed over people's heads.
Even worse, they have committed to cutting this vital funding if they're ever re-elected. The opposition have shown time and time again that they are only interested in saying one word: no—no to Help to Buy, no to social and affordable housing, no to tax cuts, no to build-to-rent and no to helping everyday Australians buy a home. Our $47 billion total national investment is almost 10 times what the coalition invested when they were in office.
The contrast could not be starker. We know the only sustainable long-term fix, the only answer, to the housing crisis is to build more homes. Supply is the key.
That's why we've set a bold, ambitious national target under Minister O'Neil to build 1.2 million homes over five years. We are actively delivering 55,000 social and affordable rental homes. We're reserving 100,000 homes specifically for first home buyers.
To unlock these builds, we're not just writing cheques; we're unblocking the system. We're training a new generation of tradies through free TAFE, we're building the vital neighbourhood infrastructure required and we're aggressively cutting red tape. But building homes is only half the battle.
We need to make sure that everyday Australians can actually buy them. On 1 October last year, this government delivered on its commitment to expand the five per cent deposit scheme to all first home buyers, allowing people to start paying off their own mortgage instead of somebody else's—and we did it three months ahead of schedule. Then, in December 2025, we launched our revolutionary Help to Buy scheme, helping eligible first-time buyers walk through their front door with a mortgage that was up to 40 per cent smaller.
We didn't stop there. In this budget, the 2026-27 budget, we took the brave but necessary steps to level the playing field. From the 2027-28 financial year, we are limiting negative gearing on residential property so that it can only be used for new builds.
That means negative gearing is grandfathered for existing properties, but, going forward, it is only on new builds. As of 1 July 2027, we're also replacing the 50 per cent capital gains tax discount with inflation adjusted indexation, restoring fairness to the taxation of real gains. Finally, we have not forgotten the millions of Australians who rent.
We have introduced powerful new incentives for projects that offer secure long-term leases, and we have worked constructively with state and territory governments to make renting fairer. Because of Labor's leadership, most states have now successfully banned no-grounds evictions and implemented strict minimum living standards. Crucially, we have delivered back-to-back increases in Commonwealth rent assistance.
Under this Albanese Labor government, rent assistance is now 50 per cent higher, providing immediate, targeted cost-of-living relief directly to renters who need it most. Safe and affordable housing is central to the security and dignity of all Australians. Despite the endless obstruction and delays from the coalition, our Housing Australia Future Fund is up and running.
As of June last year, contracts have already been signed to support 18,650 homes under the first two rounds of HAFF. More than 1,400 homes are completely finished, and hundreds of Australians are already sleeping soundly under those roofs. Now HAFF round 3 has opened.
It is our largest round to date, set to deliver more than 21,000 more social and affordable homes. This builds beautifully on our $2 billion social housing accelerator payment and our $1 billion HAFF crisis and transitional program. The momentum is real.
You can see it nationally in the budget figures, and you can also see it locally in places like High Wycombe in the seat of Bullwinkel. We are fixing the foundations of our housing system, we are backing first home buyers, we're supporting renters and we're building the homes that Australia needs. I commend this magnificent Labor housing agenda to the House.