On November 24, 2007 a new Federal Labor Government was elected. The new Government has made a number of important commitments in respect to housing and a brief description of each is provided below:  

Building & Environmental Policy

Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Housing

• Have proposed a target to cut Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by 60 per cent on 2000 levels by 2050.
• Establish a national Emissions Trading Scheme.
• Introduction of GEMS (Greenhouse Energy Minimum Standards) for hot water heaters by 2010 for new homes and 2010 for replacements in existing homes.

Water Conservation in Urban Development

• Committed $1 billion to provide Water Tax Credits and grants for desalination, water recycling, and major storm water capture projects by private sector, local governments, State and Territory Governments. 
• Expressed support for water recycling and encouraging innovation and new technological solutions to deliver a sustainable water supply for Australia. No funding commitment outlined.

Environmental Assistance Packages for Home Owners

• Have pledged to make available $10,000 low interest loans for water and energy efficiency renovations to 200,000 existing homes.
• Up to $4,000 rebates for Photo Voltaic (PV) panels (new and existing homes).
• $1,000 rebate for solar hot water systems (existing homes).
• 30 per cent rebate for ceiling insulation in rental properties (up to a maximum of $500).

Housing Affordability

Investment in Residential Infrastructure

• Will establish a $500 million Housing Affordability Fund ( HAF ).  Under the plan, local governments will apply for funding via a competitive process for grants to cover part of the cost of infrastructure to support new residential development.  Funding will be conditional on local and state governments demonstrating efficiencies in planning regulation and/or a reduction in levies and charges imposed on new dwellings.

Increasing Supply of Public/Community/Private Rental Housing

• Has committed to establishing a National Rental Affordability Scheme that will help create 50,000 new affordable rental properties across Australia over five years.  
• The National Rental Affordability Scheme involves an investment by the Commonwealth of $603 million (over the forward estimate) and is aimed at increasing the supply of residential dwellings for those on Commonwealth Rent Assistance.

Assistance for Aspiring Home Buyers

• The Government has announced reforms to superannuation that will allow for First Home Saver Accounts to encourage would-be purchasers to save a larger deposit for a home.  The plan extends superannuation taxation arrangements to saving in the first home saver account:
• Up to $10k can be committed to the first home account, with the first $5k of saving subject to tax at 15 per cent and the second $5k committed from after-tax income;
• Earnings from the saving account would be taxable at 15 per cent or lower where funds invest in companies providing franked dividends.
• The annual amount of allowable savings would be indexed according to the wage price index. The first home saving accounts will be separate to existing superannuation accounts.
• The minimum saving period would be four years.  There is no maximum saving period but there would be a cap on the amount of savings to be invested, equivalent to five times the annual saving allowance.

Other Policies/Commitments

• The Hon Jenny Macklin (Cabinet) and The Hon Tanya Plibersek will each have housing as a Ministerial responsibility.
• The Government will establish a National Housing Supply Research Council and will publish an annual State of Supply Report to analyse the adequacy of construction and land supply.

Skills and Training Issues

Investment in Training Facilities

• The Government have announced an intention to transfer existing Australian Technical Colleges to State and Territory Governments.
• An investment of $2.5 billion in capital funding over the next decade to build new trade centres in Australia’s 2,650 secondary schools.

Promoting Skills Acquisition

• An Enterprise and Career Education Foundation will be established and funded in the amount of $8 million over five years.  The Foundation will have the responsibility with the aim of improving links between schools and industry, and developing innovative, high quality, relevant work and training programs for vocational education and training in schools. 
• The Government has also identified a commitment to the delivery of higher level qualifications in schools (Certificate III and IV level) through stronger industry partnerships. 
• Job Ready Certificates are to be introduced to help businesses assess the job readiness of secondary school students engaged in trades training.

Choice and Flexibility in Training

• Early access to vocational education and training: a commitment to increase the availability of vocational education and training programs for students in Years 9 and 10.  
• Skills Australia will be empowered to allocate new and future training places in VET directly to industry sectors with the process to be overseen by Industry Skills Councils (ISC’s). These ISC’s will receive $51 million over the next 3 years.
• $84 million over 4 years has been committed to help high school students studying for a trade to get practical on-the-job training for 20 weeks in the year. Grants of $10,000 are available to individual schools under this program to broker on-the-job training. At this time only schools (not RTOs) can apply for funding under this program. 
• The Government has also committed to delivering around 820,000 additional vocational education and training (VET) places over the next six years with 90 per cent at the Certificate III level or above. Commencing in April 2008 the program will deliver 450,000 of these additional places over the next 4 years by funding at a cost of $1.1719 billion:   
• 175,000 VET places (340,000 re-entrant training places over the next 6 years) for people currently outside the workforce. Almost two thirds of VET places will be targeted to a minimum level of a Certificate III qualification in this bracket.
• 270,000 VET places (480,000 over the next six years) to improve qualifications and skills of the existing workforce. Half the new continuing training places will go towards Diplomas or Advanced Diplomas while another two-fifths will target Certificate IV qualifications in this bracket.