Max Chandler-Mather (Griffith, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

How is it that, in the middle of one of the worst housing crises this country has seen in generations, this Labor government finds it within themselves to give more money to property investors than they're spending on renters or public housing or any other housing measure combined? We know that every single year under this Labor government the housing crisis has become worse. Rents continue to go up. House prices continue to go up. Mortgages continue to go up.

This Labor government in the most recent federal budget locks in tens of billions of dollars, if not hundreds of billions of dollars, in tax handouts for property investors. It is the same budget where they lock in $4,500-a-year tax cuts for every politician in this place earning over $200,000 a year. If that was not enough for the 75 per cent of Labor members in this place and the other place who are property investors, they also continue to get lucrative tax handouts in the form of negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount. The crucial point is this: not only do they receive those tax handouts but they support them, protect them and refuse to phase them out.

Last year in August national cabinet, under pressure from the Greens, met. At that national cabinet, all but one seat at that table was a member of the Labor Party, and they had the power to freeze and cap rent increases. Before them sat millions of renters whose lives are being destroyed by a housing system that far too often puts the profits of investors, developers and banks—and, it just so happens, property investors in this place—ahead of the lives of renters. They have the power. And what did they do? They locked in unlimited rent increases. The human consequences of that decision stand before us today. We know that if they had frozen rent increases in 2023 the average renter would have saved $4,000 by this point.

The money-saving is one thing, but how many mothers would not have been evicted onto the street because they could not afford the rent? How many pensioners would not have to choose between feeding themselves and staying in their rental property? How many families would not have had to move into their cars because their landlord put up the rent because this government refused to coordinate with the states and territories and put a freeze and cap on rent increases?

And then they have the gall to get up and talk about public and social housing. Really? It is genuinely incredible. If this government spent as much money on property investors as they spend on public housing, then maybe we would start to fix this crisis. But the reality is that, even if you take all of their commitments on social housing—which are extremely minimal compared to what countries do around the world—even if you take them all into account, the shortage of public and community housing and affordable housing will continue to grow under this government. It is genuinely incredible.

They talk about Commonwealth rent assistance. They love to crow about the fact that it has increased by $9 a week. One demonstration that there are few renters on the Labor front benches—in fact, I assume there are none, although there are certainly a lot of property investors, including the housing minister and the Prime Minister—is that they think that $9 a week is good for renters when their rents are going up by $50 to $100 per week.

Let's be clear about this. On the latest data, 40 per cent of people receiving Commonwealth rent assistance are still in rental stress. We received a story—and this is just one demonstration of how broken this system is—this person said: 'I have moved six homes in 14 months. Then another sold from under me. I am now in a caravan, living on the streets with my kids, unable to continue running my cleaning business, so relying on income support, living in poverty.' She has had to start homeschooling her children because the constant moving was destroying their mental health. She has had to start homeschooling her children because of the constant moving destroying their mental health. Before getting a caravan, she applied for 450 homes. The local council moved them along after one day of sleeping in an empty parking spot away from homes, because it was an 'inconvenience' for those who have a home. To be clear, that person won't even receive Commonwealth rent assistance because of how restrictive that payment is. Those people won't get any help.

At the end of the day, when it comes to all of this, the government's message is that its ambitious housing platform is working across the board. Well, it's certainly not working for the millions of renters in housing stress. It's certainly not working for the 750,000 households who won't have a public, community or affordable home under this government. There is a thing that they could do right now. They could freeze and cap rent increases. They could phase out tax handouts for property investors. And they could invest that money in building hundreds of thousands of good quality homes sold and rented at prices that people could actually afford. All they have to do is look around the world to Singapore, to Austria, to the Netherlands and across Europe, where they build good housing and rentals and sell those at prices people can afford. They actually treat housing as a human right rather than something for property investors to make a lot of money off.

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