Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to thank very much the member for Franklin for bringing this private member's motion to the House. The fact that those on the other side cannot see that this is a crisis demonstrates their complete lack of understanding of the issues. If I can lift a line from Sir Humphrey Appleby, housing is an area where this government's preferred policy position is not to have one.

That wasn't always the case. The Menzies government in particular and the Liberal governments that followed borrowed Labor's policy and did quite well with housing. As an example, when I was first buying a house at the age of 25, the cost of that house was approximately twice my income that year. One of my children recently bought a house in Sydney for 14 times his annual income. By the 1970s Australia had record rates of home ownership and one of the highest home ownership rates in the developed world. Levels have now fallen to the lowest level since the 1950s, with the most dramatic declines in recent times being among those 25 to 34 years of age and 35 to 45 years of age. Those rates of decline are accelerating for many groups, including for Australians nearing retirement age. A simple indicator of the pressing need for action is that the number of older Australians living in lower-income rental households is expected to grow by 115 per cent from 195,000 in 2001 to 419,000 in 2026. That is only one of a number of growing and worrying trends.

Commonwealth rent assistance to low-income renters has not kept pace with rising rents. Anglicare once again reported this year that only a tiny fraction—less than five per cent—of properties listed for private rental across Australia are within the reach of welfare recipients. There's a growing mismatch nationally between the sort of housing available and the demands of an increasing diverse and ageing Australian population. Families have being getting smaller just as our houses have been getting larger, and social housing is falling as a proportion of our national housing stock.

In Tasmania, it's worse than on the mainland. As at 30 June 2018, about 140,000 Australians were on waiting lists for public housing. In Tasmania, the figure is at record highs and still growing despite feeble and belated action by the state government. In June this year, the chief executive of TasCOSS, Kym Goodes, categorised Tasmania as losing ground when it comes to housing the homeless. The number of people on the waiting lists has increased, and this is the largest in any reported period they've seen. The number of people being housed has also decreased. You'd think the Hodgman's government's federal coalition mates might have helped them out but apparently not. It takes a deal with Jacqui Lambie to get some action happening, we're told.

An honourable member: Allegedly.

Allegedly. Different scripts, same unhappy ending I suspect. How can it be that, after 27 years of uninterrupted economic growth, the more than doubling of national wealth and increases to real income since the 1970s, a smaller share of Australians are able to afford a home than 40 years ago? Housing is one of the primary social determinates of health and also educational attainment. The government turns its back and ignores this. Why does it take, again, a Jacqui Lambie supposed motion to get some action?

For the past six years, the federal coalition has sat on its hands, sat on the sidelines and, like some delusional Australian rugby fan, hoped for a miracle. The only miracle we've seen is that things are not a lot worse, as they could have been. We're not praying for deliverance. The government's been leaning on the rather tired and overegged mantra that it's a supply problem. It's definitely not. In my electorate, developers have been given ample time and room to develop housing lots but they don't release them, aiming to keep the prices high and unaffordable. And this is happening around Australia. The federal government is happy for their developer mates to make record profits but not to house those on low incomes or the very poor.

It's impossible to rent a place in my electorate on Newstart Allowance even with rental assistance, yet the government turns a blind eye and does nothing. The situation in Tasmania is identical: there is land but they're not releasing it, while the unemployed, the poor, the disadvantaged and the sick are made to live on the streets thanks to this government. It's a disgraceful action. It is a crisis. And this government is turning its back on the most vulnerable. It has largely wasted the good fortune of the last few years, and we're heading for a crisis of unbelievable proportions.

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