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

There is an element of theatre to question time and to matters of public importance. I'm sure I'm not alone in recalling emails or calls where the public have wished there was a little bit less theatre. The title of what we're discussing here is 'matters of public importance'. After the day-to-day stresses of cost of living, there is no more important matter to the public right now than housing. I hear it from grandparents who are worried that their children and grandchildren won't have the opportunities that they had. They'll say: 'I know I've done well. I own my house. I have one or two'—or more—'investment properties. Something's got to change.' I hear that again and again. On social media, young people will often express themselves through satire and parody. For those of you on X, I ask you to go and look at the account Reserve Bank of Property. It's humorous but it's cutting. On YouTube, there is a person called Biko Konstantinos who speaks about this every few days, with passion and concern. They do so because the extent of the problem is so bad.

The average Australian earns $95,000 a year. The median income is $65,000. Let's look at professions that we care about that take a lot of education and practice. Nurses start off at $62,000 in Victoria, police on $75,000 and teachers on $77,000. We value them and care for them. But, right now, looking at my home state of Victoria, in my home city of Melbourne, for them to save a deposit of 20 per cent it's going to take 21 years. That's the median. Then, assuming they do that or they are fortunate enough to come from a family where their mum and dad or grandparents can bankroll them—and not everyone has that opportunity—the disconnect with those average and median wages that they earn means that, in the entirety of the 321 suburbs of Melbourne, on the average income there are three where they can afford the median house price levels. If you take all the prices on realestate.com.au or domain.com.au and you pick the middle price of that suburb, at that price they can afford only three of the 321 suburbs. With units, it's 21. That's on the average income, which includes billionaires—and we've heard a lot about billionaires this week. On the median income—you pick 10 Victorians and take halfway through their incomes—people can afford zero houses out of the 321 suburbs. There is no home for them. With units, it's zero. Some may say: 'Who buys a house on their own? Who buys a unit on their own? They're usually part of a couple or a household.' We have that data. On the median household income with the median price in the 321 suburbs of Melbourne, that household can afford zero houses and can afford a unit in 15 of the suburbs. That's as good as it gets. That's where we are right now.

What does that mean? That means young Australians are giving up on the very dream that their parents and grandparents perhaps took for granted and the very dream that drives migrants to move heaven and earth to come here, like my family and so many in this chamber. What will it mean for generations to come? It will mean that Australia will be a place that is less about hard work, intellect and taking risk and more about whether you are born into the right family and whether you are from a landowning family. That's not the sort of Australia people move heaven and earth to come to. That's not the sort of Australia we pride ourselves in.

No government is perfect. There is a lot of whataboutism in this debate, but we have to start by recognising the scale of the problem. It matters to Australians of all generations, and it must matter to us here in this place.

See this speech in context