Keith Wolahan (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'll take the interjection. We have now seen a partisan interjection. When we look for serious solutions to a serious problem—those were fine words that the Prime Minister used in 2012—then we get talking points. We get a scheme that is not designed to actually lift homeownership. It's designed to say that the government will have a seat at the dining table and own your property. That will create enormous complexities. We know when households and couples are required to buy a home the sad reality is many of those relationships break down. If a party to that relationship is the government, how is that dealt with? How is that going to play out through the courts? Whether it's the HAFF or this scheme, we are seeing talking points driving the potential for us to do better. We need to move away from the talking points and actually solve the problem.

I'm from the seat of Menzies. It's named after Robert Menzies. We heard the comment made that the Liberal Party hasn't done much for homeownership. It was under Robert Menzies that homeownership saw the greatest increase. In 1949, homeownership rates were at 53 per cent. When he left office in 1966 they were at 71 per cent. What happened over that time were two things: we saw one of the greatest migration booms in Australia and we saw interest rates that were about 5.2 per cent. That's very similar to what we have now. Under similar conditions, with a high migration boom to this country and relatively high interest rates, we saw homeownership rates go through the roof. We've done it before, and we can do it again. The key is acknowledging that at the moment there is a massive issue of supply of affordable housing throughout this country. The gridlock is coming through councils and through state governments, and there are certain levers that can be pulled in this place which can actually make a difference.

To the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Fees Imposition Amendment Bill 2024, which we're discussing today: in my community, the city of Whitehorse is a council that partly covers my area. Councillor Blair Barker had a freedom of information application to note how many residences were unoccupied in that particular council. It was in the many thousands, but there were only 40 properties and owners that were levied the vacancy levy. There's a real issue with enforcement. If we are to have the residential property market be more than just the equivalent of money under the mattress—there's a lot of capital floating around the world, and the Australian residential property market can't be the equivalent of money under the mattress. It is so much more to our economy and to our sense of who we are.

With that, I would like to yield to my good friend the member for Kennedy.

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