MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE

Senator WHITEAKER (Western Australia) (18:11): I've been thinking a lot in recent days about: what's the point in coming to this building if you're not making a difference to people's lives outside of this building? I'm not sure there's a more important purpose than to come to this house and make changes that are necessary to help young Australians right across our country buy their own house, and ultimately that is at the heart of our budget measures and that has been at the heart of the work of the Albanese Labor government during the first term and over the last 12 months, since we were re-elected in May last year.

This budget is a reflection of the fact that, while we've done a lot of really good and important work, there is more work to do. We can do more to help young people own a home of their own. When I talk to young people around the country, they are really clear that they feel like they are doing everything right—working hard, saving their money—but they just can't get their foot in the door.

We've heard a lot of drama, a lot of hyperbole from those opposite about our tax measures and about what it will mean for the housing market, what it will mean for young people. They talk a lot about the idea that we're taking away aspiration from young people. I think they like to try to fool the young people of this country into believing that they might be able to make it, to invest in property, to own five or six or seven properties and make money at the end of it.

But the truth is, most young Australians, most young working Australians, will not be able to achieve that dream. They can't climb the ladder because the first few steps have been taken away. We should be really clear about who ripped those steps out of the ladder.

It was those opposite while they were in government, when they sat on their hands for nine years and did nothing to build more homes, did nothing to help young Australians realise the dream of homeownership, when they barely had a housing minister for most of their time in government. We should also be clear about the tax mechanisms that incentivised investment in housing and made it a really appealing way to make money.

Sure, I don't begrudge those who have, under previous arrangements—under the capital gains tax arrangements—made money from those arrangements. But the reality is that it has meant that my generation and the generation below mine have not had the same opportunity to enter the property market. They can't even buy their first home, let alone their second or their third or their fourth.

Our government believes that it should not be easier to buy your fifth home than it is to buy your first. In 1999, I was only six years old. John Howard, as the Prime Minister, changed the tax arrangements to give property investors and other investors a really generous discount on the amount of tax they paid on their profits.

Those are the changes that we are seeking to change because, since then, house prices have risen in a way that has made it completely impossible for most ordinary young Australians to buy their first home. Labor says that is unacceptable. That is not an arrangement that we will allow to continue.

We will not stand by and let young people miss out on the opportunity to own their first home.