Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Housing) Share this | Hansard source

Madam Deputy Speaker, I appreciate that you are in a frustrating position and I will try to make it less frustrating for you. No doubt, I will have another opportunity to talk about the Housing Affordability Fund and the National Rental Affordability Scheme.

As I reminded the House earlier, the opposition are not opposing first home saver accounts, because we appreciate that any opportunity young people have to save is a good thing. However, if the measure is successful, the principal reason for it being successful will be that people change their saving habits. A relatively modest government co-contribution—$850—is the most one could receive and then you would have to save $5,000. That is difficult for a young person in any situation these days. If you saved $1,000 you would get a government co-contribution of $150. Add that to the enormous complications surrounding the rules that govern the accounts—that have been admitted to be quite inflexible and quite onerous—a young person considering whether to go ahead and take up a first home saver account, should the financial institutions offer them in a competitive way, and we have yet to see that, may well decide to use other savings options. They may well decide that the small advantage they would accrue over the time they held their first home saver account would be quickly outstripped by the rising costs of housing in Australia. If nothing is done to address the supply-side factors I expect that that is exactly what will happen.

I conclude my remarks on this bill by reminding us all of those who do not have a roof over their head. We talk about houses, but there are some Australians who will never own their own home and there are many Australians who are homeless and sleep on the street each night. During the last sitting of parliament the Salvation Army was here. I would like to place on record my strong support for their programs. I assisted them in the launch of the Red Shield Appeal in Cairns relatively recently. I could not believe the individual work that they do for the homeless and the quality of the advice and support they provide. So I think it was quite difficult for Salvation Army Captain Paul Moulds to warn the government—yes, there has been a great focus on the homeless issue, which is much appreciated by those who help the homeless—‘I don’t think there has been one additional homeless person that has yet been helped.’ It is very important when expectations are this high that we do not continue with reviews, green papers, white papers, committees and discussions that actually do not give the dollars to the people who need them—the people who know very well what is required.

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