Chris Bowen (Prospect, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

which are higher than they were in 1990, for the benefit of the minister at the table, and higher than they were in 1982. We see the impact of this.

I noticed a very good article in the Sydney Morning Herald last week, on 4 October, by somebody who has shown an interest in what is happening in Western Sydney and has written a series of good articles about the economic impact of what is happening there. It is a very worthwhile quote by the economics correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald, Matt Wade, who said:

... the rise and fall of house prices over the past decade has inflicted disproportionate damage on the most vulnerable parts of the city. In Sydney’s west and southwest, fragile suburban economies have been harmed, jobs have evaporated and lives have been ruined.

They are not my words, although they could easily be; they are the words of the Sydney Morning Herald, which I have referred to in the past as ‘that well-known socialist journal’. It is not always a newspaper which picks up the arguments of the ALP but, in this case, they have done a very thorough analysis of what is happening in the economy of Western Sydney, and I wholeheartedly endorse those comments.

It would be nice if the government turned its attention to this issue and recognised that there are major financial pressures, that more and more people in Western Sydney have had to take out mortgage insurance to purchase their home and that the skills crisis, for example, saw the cost of construction of a house increase by 58 per cent. We saw this property boom going on and people struggling to amass enough capital to buy a house and taking out mortgage insurance to do it, hoping perhaps that property prices would continue to rise and they could reclaim part of that premium, which, as I said before, was $10,000 to $15,000 in some cases—more in some cases and less in others, obviously. I am aware of lots of mortgage premiums of $10,000 to $15,000 that people have had to find in order to buy a house in the Western Sydney market.

The Prime Minister’s solution to all this is for the states to release more land. When in doubt blame the states—but blame the states in a way which makes absolutely no sense. There is not even a cover of respectability or logic; it is simply an easy political solution for the government to flick responsibility for this onto another level of government.

As I indicated at the outset to the House and whips, I only had brief remarks to make. The ALP will continue to support this bill, but it would be nice to see the government take a bit of interest in, do something about and show empathy towards the people dealing with the economic situation in Western Sydney.

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