Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Recent years. I would say to the Leader of the Opposition—so keen as he is to interject—that increased cost of living pressure only occurred in this country as of 24 November 2007! If you are going to have any credibility in the cost of living debate in this country, you have to recognise that these pressures have been building for a long, long time. The housing affordability figures that I referred to before go right to where they stood as of November last year. Let me just repeat this for the Leader of the Opposition. In March 2006, housing affordability stood at four times the value of the average annual wage. When those on the other side left office at the end of 2007, it was seven and a half times the value of the average annual wage. That is a huge decline in real housing affordability for working families. We have a practical plan of action to do something about a real need for working families.

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