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First home buyers are set for a significant leg up with a new initiative from the Morrison Government to slash the size of a home loan deposit.
It can take nine to 10 years for an average household to save a deposit. We want to help Australians realise the goal of buying their first home by cutting years off the time it takes to save up.
Our plan for a stronger economy means we can help secure the future of tens of thousands of first home buyers.
Under our government, more than 110,000 Australians bought their first home in 2018 – the highest level in nine years, and the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme will offer even more support with up to $500 million in the form of equity through the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation to focus on improving housing affordability.
Getting into the housing market is a point of pride for Australians and a rite of passage. It requires hard work and even harder saving, but we want to make it that bit easier.
Complementing our First Home Super Saver Scheme, the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme will mean first home buyers won’t need to save for a full 20 per cent deposit, so Australians can get a loan and into the market faster. The Scheme will also help first home buyers save around $10,000 by not having to pay Lenders Mortgage Insurance.
The First Home Loan Deposit Scheme will be available to first home buyers who have been able to save for a deposit of at least 5 per cent.
While our First Home Super Saver Scheme has been about helping boost the savings of first home buyers and making buying a house more affordable, the new First Home Loan Deposit Scheme will help people achieve their goals years earlier.
We want to help make the dreams of first home buyers a reality.
The First Home Loan Deposit Scheme, which will start on 1 January next year, will be targeted towards first home buyers earning up to $125,000 annually or $200,000 for couples. The value of homes that can be purchased under the Scheme will be determined on a regional basis, reflecting the different property markets across Australia.
The National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation will partner with private lenders to deliver the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme, prioritising smaller lenders to boost competition.
We will also invest $25 million in the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation to establish the Scheme and develop the expertise to conduct comprehensive research into housing demand, supply and affordability in Australia. The outcome of that research will be key to ensuring owning your own home stays within the reach of most Australians.
As well as the new First Home Loan Deposit Scheme and First Home Super Saver Scheme, our government is taking a comprehensive approach to housing affordability by:

• Investing $1 billion in local infrastructure to unlock new housing supply in partnership with local councils through the National Housing Infrastructure Facility.
• Setting up the first affordable housing bond aggregator to drive efficiencies and cost savings in the provision of affordable housing by community housing providers.
• Releasing suitable Commonwealth land, including defence land, for housing development.
• Making it easier to get from home to school and work and back with our $100 billion investment in congestion-busting transport infrastructure putting more affordable housing options within reach for first home buyers.
• Reducing barriers for older Australians to downsize to free up larger homes for families, which commenced on 1 July 2018.
• Stopping foreign investors from getting a free ride on the Australian housing market, and making sure they are paying the tax they owe.
• Investing over $7 billion in housing funding and homelessness services, with the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement (NHHA) commencing on 1 July 2018 in partnership with the States and Territories.
• Providing $4.5 billion in Commonwealth rent assistance annually.

Our plan to back first home buyers stands in stark contrast to Bill Shorten and the Labor Party who want to abolish the First Home Super Saver Scheme and jack up rents with their Housing Tax, making it more difficult for first home buyers to get into the market. If elected, Labor will pit first home buyers against their neighbours, friends and family who already own a home.
Labor’s devastating Housing Tax is a $32 billion tax grab that will hit all Australians. If you own your own home it will be worth less and if you rent you will pay more. Experts have estimated that Labor’s Housing tax would result in house prices falling by as much as 16 per cent and rents going up as much as 22 per cent.
The Morrison Government’s plan for a strong economy and records job growth will protect the value of your home and help first home buyers get into the market.

A Shorten Labor Government will make further upgrades to Cairns Hospital so it can provide more life-saving endoscopies and better services to patients about to undergo surgery.
Labor will invest $2.3 million to build a third procedure room in the hospital’s endoscopy unit to keep up with rising demand for these important services.
Without this investment, waiting lists will continue to grow and people will be denied the timely care they need.
Labor will also invest $1.9 million to build a new Multidisciplinary Pre-admission Clinic – so that patients about to undergo elective surgery have all the services they need in one location.
Pre-admission services are currently provided from multiple interim locations around the hospital, resulting in a disjointed and inefficient service for patients during what is a stressful time.
These investments build upon Labor’s $60 million commitment to build a dedicated training facility at Cairns Hospital, and our $15 million plan to redevelop the emergency department.
Cairns residents will also benefit from improved cancer care under Labor, with new metastatic and lung cancer nurses to be based in the city as part of our $2.3 billion Medicare Cancer Plan.
As treasurer, Scott Morrison cut from health and hospitals in every budget he delivered, including $7.2 million cut from the Cairns Hospital. Last month as Prime Minister he locked in those cuts.
Labor knows that you don’t improve our hospitals by cutting them. We need real change – because more of the same isn’t good enough.
If you want better hospitals not more cuts – vote Labor.
If you want a fair go for all Australians – vote Labor.

A Shorten Labor Government will invest $85 million to boost Australia’s creative industries – supporting more jobs and more investment across our growing creative economy.
This election will be a choice between a united Shorten Labor Government which will grow jobs in our creative industries, or more of the Liberals’ cuts and chaos.
Australia’s creative industries are world-class – but more investment is needed to ensure that local industries get the investment they need to compete on the rapidly changing world stage.
The creative economy includes services across music and performing arts; web and software design; gaming; film and broadcasting; publishing and visual arts; architecture and design.
Creative skills are the backbone of many fast-growing industries, and creative employment includes employment in the creative industries, as well as creative jobs embedded outside the creative industries in the wider economy.
As the trend to automation continues, the demand for creative skills is expected to increase, so understanding the role and influence of the creative industries will be critical to positioning Australia to benefit fully from new technologies and sources of growth.
That is why Labor will invest $85 million in Australia’s Creative Economy to support start-ups, small and medium sized businesses and attract international investment to create the skilled jobs of the future in Australia’s creative industries.
Labor’s investment will include new investments of:

• $60 million into the ABC and SBS for Australian screen content.

• $25 million to reinstate the Australian Interactive Games Fund.

After six years of Liberal cuts and policy inertia, only a Labor Government will advance Australia’s Creative Economy.
Our creative industries have huge potential to deliver significant economic, employment, creative, cultural and other benefits for Australia and the world.
But there are worrying signs that our local sectors are missing out on the global expansion in the creative industries, which are projected to grow exponentially.
The Liberals have undermined and stalled Australia’s progress as a Creative Economy at every turn.
Under the Liberals, we have a copper broadband network that costs more and does less, our policy and regulatory frameworks have fallen out of date and key programs and services have been cut, including the ABC, SBS, Screen Australia and the Australian Interactive Games Fund.
Labor is proud that Australia has one of the most sophisticated creative sectors in the world, but we can’t afford to rest on our laurels as investment stalls, exports fall, our talent moves offshore and our neighbours outpace us.
Australia is well placed to benefit from the development of this job-generating sector, and Labor is taking a strategic and hands-on approach to ensure we do.
Labor will:

• Convene a Creative Economy Summit to gather the best ideas to boost and accelerate Australia’s creative economy.
• Formulate a Creative Economy Strategy 2030 to harness and facilitate the cultural and industrial benefits of Australia’s creative skills.

• Reform the policy and regulatory framework for media and communications.
• Convene a Taskforce to modernise Australia’s screen content settings.
• Invest $60 million into the ABC and SBS for Australian screen content.
• Invest $25 million to reinstate the Australian Interactive Games Fund.
• Progress First Nations Media 9 Calls for Action in partnership with the sector.

This builds upon and complements related Labor commitments, including:

• $10 million to build a STEAM Innovations Centre.
• $3 million to help establish a National Centre of AI Excellence.

• $3 million for Augmented and Virtual Reality Equipment for Curtin University.

Over a decade ago, 1,000 Australians converged on Parliament House in Canberra to discuss ‘Towards a Creative Australia’ as part of Labor’s Australia 2020 Summit.
Now it’s time for Australia to look to 2030 and beyond and harness the transformations occurring in communications and the growth opportunities across our creative economy and the globe.
Only Labor has a Plan for Australia’s Creative Economy because we will make multinationals pay their fair share and close tax loopholes used by the top end of town.
End the cuts and chaos.  Vote for change.  Vote for Labor.
Funding for this commitment has been included in Labor’s Fair Go Budget Plan, available at http://www.alp.org.au/labors_fiscal_plan

A Shorten Labor Government will partner with the Andrews Labor Government to build Victoria’s first fully separated high-speed busway from Doncaster Road to Hoddle Street as part of a comprehensive $3.5 billion infrastructure plan that will ease traffic congestion across Melbourne’s northern and south-eastern suburbs.
This election will be a choice between a united Shorten Labor Government, which will build the transport infrastructure Melbourne needs, or more of the Liberals’ cuts and chaos. We need real change, because more of the same isn’t good enough.
Federal Labor will make a $250 million contribution towards constructing the busway. It will include two separated bus-only lanes running alongside a widened Eastern Freeway, commencing at Doncaster Park and Ride and ending at the existing bus lanes on Hoddle Street in the City.
Buses will be able to travel at up to 100km/h, cutting commute times by up to a third.
The Doncaster Park and Ride will be upgraded and a new Park and Ride at Bulleen built. These facilities will include additional bus platforms, multi-level parking, pedestrian and cycling access, and cycling storage cages.
In addition, a Shorten Labor Government will provide $1.75 billion to help deliver the North East Link, which will complete the ring road between the Eastern Freeway and the M80 and connect the city’s growing northern and south-eastern suburbs.
Widening the freeway and constructing the busway will accommodate current and future traffic volumes and ensure the North East Link achieves what it is designed to do: take trucks off local streets and return those streets to local residents.
The project will create more than 10,000 construction jobs.
Federal Labor will also invest $1.5 billion to deliver targeted upgrades to key arterial roads across Melbourne’s northern and south-eastern suburbs, further easing congestion, improving safety and slashing travel times.
Over six years of cuts and chaos, the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government has denied Victoria its fair share of federal infrastructure funding. Despite being home to a quarter of Australians, Victoria’s share of the federal infrastructure budget has fallen to as low as 7 per cent.
In contrast with the Liberals and Nationals, Federal Labor has developed a comprehensive plan that will ensure Victoria, Australia’s fastest growing state, has the roads and public transport networks that are fit for purpose.
By tackling traffic congestion, our investments will boost productivity, thereby laying the foundations for future economic and jobs growth.
End the chaos. Vote for change. Vote for Labor.

A Shorten Labor Government will invest $250 million in a Better Care Fund – delivering healthcare sooner and safer, and reducing pressure on public hospital waiting lists.
This is all part of Labor’s war on hospital waiting lists.
Public hospital waiting lists have been stretched to breaking point because of Scott Morrison’s cuts.
If the Liberals’ are re-elected, Morrison will cut another $2.8 billion from public hospitals, putting more pressure on hospitals and putting lives at risk.
Australia’s doctors, nurses and hospital staff are heroes who provide life-saving care to millions of people a year. But they are being asked to do more with less because of the Liberals’ cuts. This puts pressure on the quality and safety of services they can provide.
Labor’s Better Care Fund will help our hospitals by providing incentives to:

• Work with primary health care providers to deliver care in the community – preventing and treating chronic disease early and reducing pressure on our hospitals.
• Reduce re-admissions – improving discharge and follow-up care so that unnecessary re-admissions are avoided.
• Reduce waiting times for specialist visits – so people treated or referred sooner, before illness and injury become more serious.
• Improve quality and safety – rewarding hospitals that provide exceptional care (not just increasing pressure by penalising poor care) and ensuring that data is collected and used to improve care in all hospitals.

As part of our war on waiting lists, Labor will also:

1. Invest $250 million to slash elective surgery waiting lists
2. Invest $500 million to slash waiting lists for cancer patients
3. Invest $500 million for an emergency department waiting time blitz.

Around 600,000 Australians a year go to hospital and end up sicker from preventable complications from procedures or adverse reactions to drugs.
The Australian Medical Association says our public hospitals are under pressure, with “increased numbers of deaths for admitted patients, high levels [of] complications [and] delayed care”. It has called for the Government “to fund hospitals to be better, not just busier”.
Labor’s Better Care Fund will develop specific incentives in consultation with doctors, nurses and staff, and agree these incentives in a new National Partnership Agreement with the states.
Labor will also task the new Australian Health Reform Commission and the Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care with advising governments on how to improve hospital care under this agreement.
You don’t improve our hospitals by cutting them.
We need real change – because more of the same isn’t good enough.
If you want better hospitals not more cuts – vote Labor.
If you want a fair go for all Australians – vote Labor.

The Morrison Government is providing $30 million over four years to protect the hearing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children through its comprehensive Hearing Assessment Program.
“Poor hearing has profound effects on a child’s ability to learn from and interact with others and can leave them isolated, disengaged and facing challenges at home,” said Indigenous Health Minister Ken Wyatt.
“Our Indigenous children have much higher rates of hearing loss than other Australian children, largely due to complications from middle ear infection, otitis media.
“Children with undiagnosed hearing loss tend to fall behind in school due to delayed speech and language development, which can have a devastating effect on their future employment opportunities and their chance of living happy, successful lives.”
The program will provide ear health checks and diagnostic hearing assessments, as well as follow-up treatment for children in the years before they start school so that they are able to hear in the classroom.
Minister Wyatt said that he has asked the Department of Health to work with Australian Hearing to develop delivery arrangements for the diagnostic hearing services.
Consultation with stakeholders during co-design for the program has identified Australian Hearing as the organisation best placed to provide the scale and quality of diagnostic audiology services required for this important program.
“Involving Australian Hearing in the program will streamline hearing service delivery for children and their families by providing timely fitting of hearing devices for those children who need them,” said Minister Wyatt.
“At the same time, other Morrison Government funded ear health campaigns will be strengthened to support the Hearing Assessment Program by providing follow-up specialist and allied health services.”
The Minister said that in some areas, primary health workers needed more training and experience in providing ear and hearing assessments, especially for very young children.
“As part of their duties, Australian Hearing audiologists working with the new program will provide on the job training to health workers employed in primary care clinics,” Minister Wyatt said.
“Over time, this will build health workers’ skills and help embed ear health checks in everyday health service delivery for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.”
In addition, the Morrison Government is providing up to $200,000 in funding in 2018-19 to train health professionals in delivering tympanometry to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.
The Hearing Assessment Program will support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children to grow up with good hearing and the advantages this brings.
The program will be targeted at rural and remote communities.
This new investment brings Morrison Government funding for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ear and hearing health activities to over $95 million (2018-19 to 2021-22).
Thanks to our Government’s strong economic management, $160 million has also been committed to the Indigenous Health Research Fund which includes a commitment to end avoidable deafness.

Female athletes across Australia will be the major beneficiaries of a new $70 million sports package from the Morrison Government.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the package would secure the future of Australian netball, establish a permanent home and high performance centre for the Matildas in Melbourne, add support for South East Queensland’s bid for the 2032 Olympic Games and improve nationwide facilities for aspiring Olympians and Paralympians.
The Prime Minister said the further investment in sport was on top of his Government’s previous commitment to upgrade hundreds of change rooms across the country.
“We know that participating in sport and physical activity improves the health and well-being of millions of Australians,” the Prime Minister said.
“But sport also brings communities together and when our athletes are on the world stage it brings our nation together.
“This is about backing netball as a sport that brings young women in and keeps them engaged and active, often for decades. Our support for the first ever International Netball Hub highlights what can be done with our plan for a stronger economy and it recognises Melbourne’s reputation as a sporting city.
“More and more women are playing sport and my Government has made a deliberate investment to provide better and more equitable facilities at our playing fields. We need to make sure women are supported from entry level as young girls all the way through to elite level competition, including in once male dominated sports.
“The Matildas’ new home in Melbourne shows we’re getting behind one of Australia’s fastest growing and most popular women’s sports. Melbourne is one of the world’s great sporting cities and our support for the Matildas’ new home shows Victoria is kicking goals.
“An Olympics has the potential to be a game-changer for South East Queensland and our government will be there every step of the way. A Queensland Olympics wouldn’t just take Australian sport to a new level, it’d mean showing off the Sunshine State to the world and an economic and jobs boom.
“We are the party best able to deliver a stronger economy which is the only way to deliver the investment in sport to support ever higher levels of participation and success.”
Under the new $70 million package, the Morrison Government would deliver:

• $30 million to boost the number of young athletes playing netball, as well as providing the first ever International Netball Hub in Melbourne;
• $15 million to establish a home for the Matildas in Melbourne;
• Up to $10 million as an Australian Government contribution to support South East Queensland’s bid for the 2032 Olympic Games;
• $11.5 million to support infrastructure upgrades at high-performance facilities across Australia to benefit our Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls;
• $2 million to establish a Regional Events Fund which will support the staging of new elite-level sporting events in regional Australia; and
• $1.5 million to improve our capability in finding our best para-athletes to compete on the world stage.

Minister for Sport Bridget McKenzie said the investment in netball, football, and our future Olympians and Paralympians was critical to Australia’s sporting future.
She said the Morrison Government was already rolling out the first ever National Sports Plan, Sport 2030, which outlines a vision for Australia to be the most active and healthy sporting nation known for its integrity and sporting success.
“The success of our Diamonds, Matildas and other national female athletes has encouraged a tsunami of young girls across the country to get more active,” Minister McKenzie said.
“We want to support these women in sport, from the grassroots level up to elite representatives – you can’t be what you can’t see.
“Women often don’t have access to appropriate change room facilities resulting in them having to get changed behind towels on the side of fields or in cars, and having to go home for showers.
“This is a major deterrent for women wanting to participate and to feel like they are welcome in clubs across many sports.
“That’s why in the past 12 months we have provided funding for more than 650 projects across the country including new change rooms, netball courts, upgraded playing fields and flood lighting.
“Regardless of whether you’re playing at the highest level or a grassroots level, we want all Australians to have the opportunity to be engaged in sport and physical activity.
“Our Government is committed to reducing physical inactivity among Australians by 15 per cent by 2030 – and we are determined to bring the health, social, cultural and inclusion benefits of sport and physical activity to all Australians.”
The additional $70 million investment builds on more than $2.5 billion which the Morrison Government has delivered for sport since being elected 2013.