Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Housing) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, may I add my congratulations to those of others on your elevation to the speakership. I want to thank the member for Calwell for her question. This question has enormous significance in her electorate, where mortgage stress has increased by 82 per cent between 2001 and 2006 and where almost half of households are in rental stress. Indeed, Calwell has the highest rate of rental stress of any electorate in Victoria. Of course, it is not the Lone Ranger in terms of nonaffordability. Under the previous government we saw rent stress go up, we saw mortgage stress go up, we saw homelessness go up, we saw home repossessions go up, we saw housing affordability go down and we saw first homeownership go down.

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