Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) recognises that every Australian should have access to safe and secure housing;

(a) the rate of home ownership continues to decline due to this Government's inaction and lack of leadership on federal housing policy;

(b) the rising cost of rent is pushing more Australians into rental stress;

(c) more investment in social housing is needed immediately to address the growing waitlists and increasing number of people facing homelessness; and

(d) the homelessness sector is desperate for more funding to support those needing crisis accommodation, especially women fleeing domestic and family violence; and

(3) calls on the Government to take responsibility and implement policies that respond to the serious issues facing access to safe and secure housing in Australia.

The legacy of the Liberal government is flat wages for eight years at the same time as we have had housing prices and the cost of housing in this country skyrocket—flat wages and the price of housing increasing. The gap in housing affordability has never been bigger in the history of Australia. It is harder to get into the housing market now than it has ever been in the history of our great country.

Why is it important that Australians can get into the housing market? Because, if you retire, your net worth on average—the median net worth of people who are able to get into the housing market in Australia—is $980,000 in assets if you're able to have some sort of property asset in this country, but, if you don't, that number is $40,000. It is a great wealth creator in this country. Housing and property is a great way for Australians to find financial security in retirement. But, under this government, what we have seen is that fewer and fewer Australians are able to have this opportunity in their working lives to secure their financial future and to be able to retire with the amount of financial security that Australians deserve.

Who is this affecting the most? It is affecting Australian women. The fastest-growing cohort of homeless Australians is women over 55. If you look at some of the structural inequalities in our economy, it is clear to see what is driving that. Women are working for less. The gender pay gap has not been closed under this government. They are working in lower-paid industries more generally—services based industries—and they are also taking breaks from the workforce. They're doing more than their fair share of looking after kids and also caring responsibilities. Australian women are doing more than men in caring for families and taking breaks from their employment, which means superannuation is being reduced.

What's this government's response to some of the structural inequalities, with flatlining wages and women being unable to get into the housing market or to find safe and secure housing? This government says, 'We're not even going to try and fix wages flatlining.' We saw last night in the budget that this government is content with flat wages over the forward estimates. They don't want to see wages increase. They don't want the gap in what Australians earn and what they can afford in housing to close. What this government has presided over is a widening of that gap in what Australians can afford and what Australians are earning and the cost of housing.

Of course, when it comes to superannuation, what do they desperately want you to do? They want you to raid your superannuation to put it into housing. What that's going to do is bump up the cost of housing, and it's also going to leave more and more Australians, especially Australian women, with less retirement savings when they retire. Housing affordability is a crisis in this country. But as more and more people are unable to enter the housing market, it's pushing them into the rental market. The cost of rental is becoming more and more in this country. Forty per cent of renters are paying more than 30 per cent of their income on rent, which is causing financial stress. Australians are paying more than they can afford, to live in the rental market. This is a real problem, because at the other end of the scale, in the social housing market, less than one per cent of people on the JobSeeker allowance can afford to be in the private rental market.

The government last night talked about all of these incentive programs: 'Look how great we're doing on housing affordability.' What they are doing is a drop in the ocean. There are 200,000 people in Australia on the social housing waitlist. There are hundreds of thousands of Australians facing rental stress. Less than 40 per cent of people at the age of 30 can get into the housing market. Housing affordability under this government is becoming a crisis. It has never been less affordable in the history of our country to get into the housing market. And what we're seeing is more of the same, more of the same marketing and spin. What we need is to attack supply, attack the problem of the number of houses out there and make housing more affordable for everyday Australians.

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