Simon Kennedy (Cook, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I commend the member for Fraser for his diagnosis of the problem. It was very logical, and I couldn't agree more. It is primarily a supply-side problem, and we agree that there are demand measures and that it cuts across the three levels of government. We are in a housing crisis, though—let's not make any bones about it—and governments across Australia are still not doing enough. The diagnosis of the problem is correct, but there is not enough action.

Just this morning, I took a phone call from a local community member in Cook. His daughter and son-in-law, and their kids, can no longer afford to live in Cronulla. They're looking to move to Western Australia because they can't afford a house. They're schoolteachers. This man is losing his daughter, his son-in-law and his beautiful grandkids because, as a nation, we still cannot fix housing affordability. It's a national shame. Housing affordability is literally breaking up families.

I met with St Vincent de Paul three weeks ago in Gymea to discuss an especially troubling case about a young woman—a young single mother—facing homelessness. Homelessness in New South Wales is up 25 per cent this year alone. The Labor government is talking a lot about housing affordability, but prices keep going up and up. In early 2002, the median house price was 4.9 times the median gross disposable household income. In 2024, it has risen to be 8.6 times the median gross disposable household income. Treasury reports that the proportion of household income needed to service a home loan has increased from 29 per cent to 46 per cent.

Why are homes getting more and more expensive? Who's to blame? It's a failure of government. Today, in New South Wales, 50 per cent of the cost of housing is the government's planning approval process, taxes and red tape. The government has failed to get housing supply to keep up with housing demand.

On the demand side, there's been record migration under this government. Australia's population is growing faster than at any time since 1952. A record 547,000 new migrants came into the country last year, with only 164,000 new homes added. What happens when you get population growth dramatically outstripping housing supply? You get skyrocketing house prices. Somehow this government does not understand this; Labor has largely ignored the problem. The government should have been bringing in droves of immigrants in construction related industries, but it has not. Instead, it's been prioritising yoga teachers and protecting unions, not importing new skilled workers for these industries.

Furthermore, the Housing Australia Future Fund has not built any new houses in the two years since the government was elected—not a new single house in two years, in the middle of a housing crisis. It's unacceptable. This scheme has been poorly designed, and it's turning into a case study on government killing the effectiveness of their own programs with too much red tape.

What is the solution? State and local governments control housing supply. They've been too slow to release land and too slow to approve development. Who can blame them? When they approve new developments, local roads become more congested and hospital waiting rooms become overcrowded. Local schools and sports fields become full of demountables. What's the solution here? I'm calling for the federal government to fund state governments based on new home completions. We need more supply at lower prices. For every one per cent increase in the number of dwellings, house prices drop 2½ per cent. More supply helps renters too. A one per cent increase in the vacancy rate provides rent cuts of up to two per cent.

How do we get more supply? The federal government needs to start funding the state governments for this, with more infrastructure funding, GST funding and rental assistance. Federal infrastructure funding should be allocated to states based on housing completions. If a state completes more homes, it should have more infrastructure funding. The GST formula could be reworked to provide more funding to states for housing completions.

Lastly, the federal government could offer to cover rent assistance in exchange for states redeveloping their public housing. We should allow public housing tenants and critical workers to buy their own homes. It's time to empower Australians and help them take control of their lives again.

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