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Committee’s report

The committee tabled Report No. 11, 57th Parliament - Help to Buy (Commonwealth Powers) Bill 2024, on 7 June 2024. The Bill was passed on 11 June 2024.

View: Report

The Government has three months to respond to the report’s recommendations. At that time, the Government Response will be published here.

About the Bill 

On 2 May 2024, the Hon Meaghan Scanlon, Minister for Housing, Local Government and Planning and Minister for Public Works, introduced the Help to Buy (Commonwealth Powers) Bill 2024 (the Bill) into the Queensland Parliament. The Bill was referred to the Housing, Big Build and Manufacturing Committee for detailed consideration.   

View: Explanatory speech
View: Bill 
View: Explanatory Notes 
View: Statement of compatibility 

The objective of the Help to Buy (Commonwealth Powers) Bill 2024 is to refer certain powers to the Commonwealth to enable the Commonwealth Help to Buy Bill 2023 to be passed. This will allow the Australian Government to fully implement the Help to Buy scheme (the Scheme).

The Scheme is a shared equity program aimed at assisting low to middle income earners to purchase new or existing homes by accessing an equity contribution from the Australian Government of up to 40 per cent of the purchase price of a new home and up to 30 per cent for an existing home for 40,000 eligible households. A minimum of 2 per cent deposit is required from a prospective and eligible buyer.

The Australian Government has committed to Queensland being the first participating state in the Scheme. This requires the Bill (as the referral legislation) to be passed first before the Commonwealth Help to Buy Bill 2023 can be passed to provide the constitutional basis to establish the Scheme.

Further information

Further information including written briefings, correspondence, response to submissions, transcripts and answers to questions taken on notice are available under the Related Publications tab.

PUBLIC PROCEEDINGS

The committee has scheduled a public briefing on the Bill from officers of the Department of Housing, Local Government, Planning and Public Works on Monday, 13 May 2024 and a public hearing on Monday, 27 May 2024. See timeline below for further information as it becomes available.

Timeline