Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support this motion on the importance of home ownership to Australians which has been brought by the member for Groom and I thank the member for bringing this motion to the House. Just by way of opening, I have been present for the honourable member for Hasluck's speech. It was interesting that she spent the first two minutes of her five-minute allotted time not discussing the importance of home ownership, but instead talking about all the things that the coalition, allegedly or apparently, did or didn't do when they were in. I might just remind the member that this government of which she is a part has now been in for two years.

Homeownership is deeply embedded in the Australian psyche. It's called 'the great Australian dream'. The notion has been fundamental to the way our country has developed since Federation: a largely classless society built on egalitarian principles, built on the notion that most Australians are able to aspire to and achieve homeownership. Australia's founders clearly believed that this should be a property-owning democracy. They came to this view because they knew that the line upon which division is most etched in society, particularly having regard to former British society, is the ownership of property. Therefore, they decided that everyone needs to be given the chance to own the home in which they live, needs to be given the opportunity to purchase their first home.

This is one area where this government has really let Australians down. Homeownership has never been less affordable than under this government. Let's look first of all at the deposit that's required. From the 1960s right through even to the 1990s, it took on average months, or a small number of years, to save for the average deposit for the average Australian home on an average Australian wage or salary. Now it is 12 years. To service a loan in Sydney now takes an income of over $280,000 per year. This is making homeownership absolutely impossible for gen Z and absolutely impossible for millennials. We can just look at the numbers. In the 1970s the average age of first-home buyers was 25 years. It's now 36 years. The seventh largest lender in Australia to first-home buyers is now the 'bank of mum and dad'. This means that for the first time in Australia we're approaching a position where whether or not you own a home will depend almost entirely upon the circumstances of your birth. That is not the attitude, not the culture that has been Australia—and it's untenable.

What could the Albanese Labor government be doing? First of all, it could be taking some of the pressure off the demand side. That is, it could be reining in inflation, and bringing back a sensible and sustainable immigration policy that links immigration to the existing housing and infrastructure that we have here. At present, we have four immigrants coming in for every one dwelling being built in Australia. This is unplanned and unsustainable. We need immigrants in Australia. Contemporary Australia has been built on the back of immigration. But the policy that has been introduced by this government is unsustainable, and it is locking Australians out of the housing market.

Housing supply is something this government should be addressing. While largely the remit of state and local governments, federal government does have levers to assist with supply and could be further assisting first-home buyers. It could be incentivising local and state governments to increase housing densities in line with existing infrastructure and transport hubs. There is plenty the government could be doing and should be doing to increase supply.

I'll turn briefly to mortgage stress, because the motion refers to mortgage stress. We now have a large number of Australians—over 1.6 million, or 31.4 per cent of mortgage holders—experiencing mortgage stress. This is linked directly to the 12 interest rate rises in a row that we have seen under the Albanese Labor government. Again, reining in inflation to control interest rates is something this government could and should be doing through its fiscal policy. The Albanese Labor government is letting Australians down on homeownership and is letting Australians down on mortgage stress.

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