QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE: TAKE NOTE OF ANSWERS
Senator WALKER (South Australia) (15:12): Look, I know it's the end of parliament before the break. Everyone's tired. So it's not a surprise that we've had a pretty mediocre question time from those opposite—if you can even call it that.
I know they're all eager to get to the Qantas Lounge and jump on the plane, so it's no surprise that they're just repeating the same old questions. The coalition's entire housing strategy is to insist that nothing changes and then wonder why nothing changes. That doesn't make any sense to me.
When faced with a choice between helping a young family to buy their first home and protecting generous tax concessions for wealthy investors, the coalition never hesitates to show us who they really are and who they'll back. Those opposite do not have a solution to the housing crisis. They are out of touch with what reality looks like for young people at the moment.
They talk about young people all the time. I spend a lot of my time out talking to young people, and they have a diverse range of views. But I wonder whether those opposite actually talk to young people or just say they do.
They generally don't vote in a way that would benefit young people. Of the things young people raise with me, housing is one of the top issues. That's why I'm proud to be part of a government that is doing something about the housing crisis.
Those opposite sit over there complaining endlessly and blocking legislation, but they won't actually do anything. And the stats do not lie: more than 260,000 Australians have used the five per cent deposit scheme, and nearly 70 per cent of scheme participants are ahead on their mortgage repayments. We trust first home buyers to make decisions in their financial interest—decisions that support their aspiration to own their own home for the long term.
A fun fact for those opposite: first home buyers using the five per cent deposit scheme are less likely to be in arrears on their mortgage than mortgage holders in the mainstream market. We are delivering 55,000 social and affordable rental homes and we're building 10,000 homes reserved just for first home buyers. But we know investment to build homes alone is not enough, which is why we're training more tradies, building more infrastructure and cutting red tape, including pausing the National Construction Code and fast-tracking environmental approvals.
In our most recent budget, we made an investment of a further $2 billion in enabling infrastructure to unlock 65,000 new homes. Young people are making up a bigger proportion of the voting population than before. Just a word of unsolicited advice: if you want to save the furniture, maybe just reflect on your voting record.
It might explain the position you're in. Australians aren't stupid. They see what you vote for.
I have some other inconvenient facts for those opposite. In 2019, just over two per cent of homeowners were in negative equity. Now it's less than half of that.
Where was this outrage when more than twice as many Australians were in negative equity under the former government? Nowhere to be seen. Those opposite do not care about first home buyers.
Their voting record says so. Westpac recently told the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics that: … the performance of that cohort over the last few years is where our average book performance is—and … we're not seeing underperformance or more challenges in that part— (Time expired)