Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

As I was saying, this is a government that has utterly refused to act on blatantly unfair, expensive, market-distorting tax concessions. Again and again those opposite back in wealthy property investors over the hundreds of thousands of Australians who just want to be able to buy their own home, and, when backed into a corner, they offer ridiculous suggestions to young Australians, like: 'Go get rich parents,' or, 'Move to the country.' Then, of course, they peddle nonsense about Labor's plan to rein in those expensive tax concessions. They use modelling that does not reflect our policy at all. They say that our policy will drive house prices down. Then they say it will send them sky-high. Sometimes they even say both things in the same interview! But, whatever they're saying, you can be sure they have the best interests of property developers and wealthy investors front of mind.

Labor understands this government has utterly failed low- and middle-income Australians, especially young Australians, when it comes to housing affordability. We have been listening to stakeholders and communities across Australia about what needs to happen. One of the lead organisations in this push has been Compass Housing Services, a non-government, community organisation based in my home city of Newcastle. Compass are world leaders in their field, so much so that they were the only Australian community housing organisation to take part in the global United Nations Habitat III conference in Quito, Ecuador. I congratulate Compass and the coalition of housing and social service organisations that have been actively campaigning for a national housing strategy.

Labor understand that we have a deep responsibility to address these issues, should we have the privilege of forming government. We recognise that safe and affordable housing is the foundation for a cohesive, productive and fair society. That's why housing will be a central feature not just of our housing policy but also of our infrastructure policy, our cities policy and our population policies. We've already made some fantastic announcements. If elected, a Labor government would: (1) reform negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions; (2) limit direct borrowing by self-managed superannuation funds; (3) facilitate a COAG process to introduce a uniform vacant property tax across all major cities; (4) increase foreign investment fees and penalties; (5) establish a bond aggregator to increase investment in affordable housing; (6) develop and implement, through the Council of Australian Governments, a national plan to reduce homelessness; and (7) re-establish the National Housing Supply Council and reinstate a minister for housing. Lastly, we would provide an $88 million injection over two years for a new Safe Housing Fund to increase transitional housing options for women and children escaping domestic and family violence, young people exiting out-of-home care and older women on low incomes who are at risk of homelessness. And that is just the beginning. There will be more announcements in this critical policy area as we get closer to next year's election. I can assure you Labor understands that there is no more fundamental obligation for governments than to ensure that everyone has a roof over their head.

I'd like to now consider some of the details of the bill before us today. As I've already mentioned, the bill doesn't go anywhere near doing the things that need to be done to address the dire housing affordability problems. Indeed, the changes that are being proposed are largely technical amendments which have absolutely nothing to do with delivering housing affordability. The first measure in this bill creates the Automatic Rent Deduction Scheme, which gives states and territories the option of automatically deducting an amount from social housing tenants' income support payments for rent and utilities. It also allows the inclusion of an amount of money for property damage.

Currently, there is a voluntary scheme in place in which social housing tenants on income support have the option to ask the Department of Human Services to transfer some of their fortnightly pay directly to the housing provider for rent and some bills. It should be noted that the majority of social housing tenants are able to manage their budgets and keep their rent up to date. This is an important point because, in fact, 90 per cent of social housing tenants have absolutely no problems meeting their obligations and the rental collection rate for public and community housing is well over 99 per cent.

Having said that, Labor accepts that in principle there may be a place for automatic rent deduction. We understand there may be situations where such a system would have value—for example, if tenants are being pressured to give up their rent money to support people with drug or alcohol habits somewhere else. We realise there are times when compulsory deductions may make the difference in avoiding homelessness. Indeed, when we were in government we introduced a bill that would allow for the automatic rent deductions in response to recommendations in The road home homelessness white paper. At the time, the Liberals opposed this bill, saying it would 'increase housing stress and financial hardship', and now they've brought to the parliament this bill which is so much harsher.

But there are some important differences between what the Morrison government wants to do and what Labor had proposed in the past. Critically, the Liberals' bill contains none of the safeguards that would protect vulnerable social housing clients. Labor's legislation would only have applied to tenants who had arrears of more than four weeks and only after there had been a reasonable attempt to recover the money. There was also a time limit of 12 months that the scheme would be maintained after the arrears were paid off. Also, tenants needed to be informed before changes were made to the amount of their pay that would be withheld. These are just some of the fundamental differences between Labor's approach and that of the government.

We were so concerned about the impact this would have on vulnerable Australians that we referred the bill to the Senate for an inquiry. The inquiry heard from a number of witnesses that these provisions were unnecessarily broad. Senators were told that rental arrears are much more likely to cause homelessness and more complex issues like mental illness, substance abuse and family violence. The Chairperson of the National Social Security Rights Network, Genevieve Bolton, told the committee:

… we don't think that the proposed bill will meet its stated objectives, and we think it's a disproportionate response. It doesn't address some of the critical causes of homelessness.

On a similar note, Mr Roland Manderson, Deputy Director of Anglicare Australia, explained that the automatic rental deduction scheme has a number of serious flaws and said it would only serve to 'generate other problems for tenants across the board'.

Labor is persuaded by the arguments of stakeholders that there must be safeguards and limitations to the scheme. We want it limited to those in arrears and at risk of homelessness. We want deductions capped and we want a time limit on how long the scheme can apply. We want a provision that requires lessors to let tenants know of any changes to how much will be taken out. We would like to see changes such that only money for rent and utilities is deducted. We also agree there should be a requirement for the lessor to let the tenant know if any change is made to the amount deducted. Some of these issues are covered in the government's amendments, but Labor wants to see all of these protections guaranteed.

I also mentioned earlier that the bill seeks to make changes to the National Rental Affordability Scheme. NRAS, of course, was a fantastic initiative of the former Labor government. It was the first direct supply-side financial incentive scheme for the supply of new affordable rental housing. NRAS has provided 38,000 new homes and was on track to deliver 50,000. Regretfully, it was capped in the coalition's first budget. Labor would have continued and expanded NRAS. The changes in these bills don't do that; in fact, they are largely technical. They give authority for the transfer of an NRAS allocation from one property to another in specific circumstances. They also allow the Secretary of the Department of Social Services to make variations on the conditions attached to the incentive allocations. They allow flexibility on how maximum vacancy periods are prescribed, and they remove ambiguity on how below-market rents are calculated in any one year.

Of course, all of this is just tinkering around the edges and doesn't do anything to lighten the load for vulnerable Australians. Having said that, Labor will support the changes to the NRAS, but, as I mentioned earlier, none of this will help Australians who are being forced to take one or even two or three jobs just to keep a roof over their heads. In short, the legislation before us today does nothing to address the core issue of housing affordability. Like so many times before, this is a missed opportunity by the government. Only Labor will deliver on housing affordability in this country.

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