Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

) ( There has been discussion in the media and between various members of parliament recently about the possibility of using superannuation for a home deposit. I would like to put on the record that I believe this is a good idea, but there are two important provisos that I will refer to shortly. We need to ask ourselves, 'Is home ownership something important in this country?' I say, unequivocally, yes. We want to have a society where as many people as possible have the opportunity to own their own home, that piece of the world that they can call their very own. That is what we should encourage in our society; it is what we have encouraged since the Second World War, when home ownership was at a low 53 per cent. Through that great period of the Menzies government, through the 1950s and 1960s, we saw an enormous increase in home ownership in this country.

In fact, in 1981 we had home ownership levels up to 73.4 per cent. But since 1981 we have seen year after year of decline in the percentage of Australians who own their own homes. It is now down to 67 per cent. If we look at that in numbers, that equates to some 500,000—half a million—Australian households that no longer own their own home. There are many reasons why this has happened, and one of those reasons is the superannuation system. If we are asking people to take nine per cent of their income and put it away in compulsory superannuation, that is less money they have to put towards a deposit on a house. That is why we are seeing this decline, and also a decline in the number of people who have finance for small business. Many small business people use their home as collateral to get themselves started, but if they have not got a deposit to get themselves into the market then they not only lock themselves out of homeownership but also lock themselves out of small business ownership.

Two important provisos about using superannuation: firstly, we have to increase the supply of housing in this country. We have to simply release more land. To give you an idea of the situation at the moment: if we were to depopulate the entire mainland of Australia and move everyone to Tasmania—if every single man, woman and child moved to Tasmania—we could give every single household a one-acre block and we would only use up half of Tasmania. We could use the rest for national parks and for industry. With a one-acre block, every single household in Australia could fit into Tasmania. The other proviso is that, if we allow people to use their superannuation for a deposit on their home, it has to work the same at the back end. So if a deposit is used as a draw-down, they have to also use, later on, the equity that they have in their home to help fund their retirement. It makes perfect sense. We need to have this debate. Our superannuation system is currently working against homeowners, and we must reverse that decline and increase homeownership in this country.

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