Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services, Housing, Youth and Women) Share this | Hansard source

It is no surprise, perhaps, but an enormous disappointment that when we ask questions of the Prime Minister about housing affordability in this country, a critical issue for young Australians, in particular, his attitude is to look around for someone else to blame. It is never his fault and never his responsibility. It has nothing to do with interest rates and nothing to do with years of neglect by the federal government when it comes to housing. It is never his fault. But I tell you what: there is no amount of advertising and no amount of taxpayers’ dollars that the Prime Minister can spend to convince Australians that they have, as he says, never been better off when it comes to housing affordability.

We know that households are paying more than ever before as a proportion of their income on their mortgages. We know that young people are struggling to buy their first homes and that first homebuyers have fallen as a proportion of all homebuyers from 21.8 per cent in June 1996 to 17½ per cent in February this year. Young Australians are giving up on the great Australian dream of homeownership, because this federal government is presiding over the worst housing affordability in Australia’s history. In fact, if you look at a recent NATSEM report, you will find that this does not just apply to home purchases; it also applies to rental accommodation. NATSEM show that one-quarter of a million Australians are paying more than 30 per cent of their family income on rent. So you have high purchase costs and high rental. In this environment, is it any wonder that young Australians feel as though they are never going to be able to save the deposit for a home? How do you save a deposit for a home when rents are higher than they have ever been before?

We have seen that this government is very quick to point the finger; it is always someone else’s fault. In this case, the government is very quick to blame the states. But let us just have a quick look at what some of the states have done. Mind you, all the states have done something to help with home affordability—but not the federal government. Victoria have spent $510 million on public housing in the last budget. They have cut land tax and made more people exempt from it. Land tax is being paid at a lower rate. They have stamp duty exemptions for owner-occupiers buying properties worth less than half a million dollars, and they have an extra first home buyers grant of another $4,000. Western Australia has a shared equity scheme, worth $300 million, where the government will purchase 30 or 40 per cent of the home with the homebuyer and the homebuyer can later buy that back from the government. That is to help people into home ownership. Western Australia have more community housing and they are fast-tracking land development applications. In Queensland you see the very successful Brisbane Housing Corporation. There is also a proposal from the Queensland government for a scheme called Homelink, which very specifically has all three levels of government working together on housing affordability. But do you think the federal government will come to the party on this? No. It is someone else’s responsibility.

All these measures help, but at the end of the day the thing that is driving Australian families onto the breadline are interest rates. The Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs was sitting on the front bench while his Prime Minister was talking, saying, ‘It’s nothing to do with interest rates.’ Actually, it is something to do with interest rates, because, if you look at the figures, you will see that Australian families are paying a bigger proportion than ever before of their family income on mortgage repayments. And, do you know what? They are paying a bigger proportion of their family income on interest repayments than they ever have before.

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