Today in Parliament, Abigail condemned the Minns Labor Government for crowing about the 'success' of their First Home Buyers Assistance Scheme, which in reality, as statistics show, is making housing less affordable.
Abigail said:
It is groundhog day, or perhaps members were not paying attention the last time we discussed this in September. Home buyer assistance programs do not improve housing affordability. I put all of this on record last time. Clearly, members were not listening or did not believe me. I will say it again, because it is all based on evidence from economists and statisticians: The evidence, after six decades, does not bear out the idea that first home owner grant programs actually make it easier for a broader range of people to enter the housing market. In fact, the evidence after six decades shows that these schemes not only do not significantly increase housing accessibility for new entrants but just accelerate the purchase of a home for those who were already going to be able to do it. It does not broaden access; it just hastens entry of the same pool of people into the market.
But then, as I said last September, if these schemes do not lead to more people being able to enter the housing market, do they at least make housing more affordable? The statistics do not bear that out, either. By increasing the purchasing power of first home buyers, these schemes inflate house prices. We have the New South Wales Government finally accepting that things like capital gains tax and other tax incentives being given to investors and landlords is distorting the market. We have come to that point. I thought we were now moving in line with the evidence and the statistics and acknowledging that Government policy has been pushing up house prices, making housing less affordable—but apparently not, because Government members are again moving self‑congratulatory motions about the extent to which they are further harming the housing market.
It is extraordinary. It is fantastic for those people who got into the market earlier, but we are making the same mistakes over and over. The mover of the motion said that she would like for her children, her grandchildren and everyone else's to have a home. However, the First Home Buyers Assistance Scheme and other schemes like it actually make housing less affordable in the long run does—and have done so over the decades, as the statistics show us. Therefore, we need to dispense with these short‑term, populist ideas. Giving a little bit of money to people now is making things a lot worse later. It is not something to crow about. We need to have real solutions, because people are doing it incredibly tough.
Read the debate in Hansard here.
4 February 2026