Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

It is our collective responsibility to leave the next generation with better opportunities than we've had—to be good ancestors. But, in failing to address housing affordability, we are not living up to this responsibility. Across Australian capital cities, house prices relative to incomes have become some of the highest in the world, with Sydney having the second most unaffordable housing in the world after Hong Kong.

I acknowledge that the government has made some positive steps in this place and has put housing on the agenda in this parliament. I think that's absolutely critical, and I know the government has committed significant resources to this area. But I believe that, after two decades of what is, frankly, buck-passing between federal, state and local governments and the major parties, we have to do more. We have to do more here, but we also have to do more at each of the other levels of government.

There are four key areas where the federal government can have a significant impact that goes even further than where it is now. Firstly, we need to strengthen the incentives for state and local governments to unlock housing approvals in Australian urban areas. Secondly, we need to support the availability of skills and materials, to bring down costs and increase the viability of development. Thirdly, we need to push the states to improve renters' rights, particularly in New South Wales, where I'm from and where we still have no-grounds evictions, which are undermining renters' rights across my state. Finally, we need to reform the tax system to provide greater and more equal opportunities for housing in Australia.

Housing represents a fundamental source of security that enables family planning, as well as a comfortable retirement. But housing is increasingly out of reach for younger generations. Since 1981, the rate of homeownership for those aged between 30 and 34 has declined 20 per cent, to fewer than half. Over the same period, the share of people relying on the bank of mum and dad to buy their first home has increased from 19 per cent to 40 per cent. That is not the Australian dream. We are a country where it doesn't matter what your parents earn. It shouldn't matter what they have. You should have access to those opportunities and the ability, if you're a nurse and a teacher coming together, to build a home or buy a home and set up your family. Unaffordable housing increases inequality and division in our society, robs our cities of essential workers, worsens the brain drain of our best and brightest, and discourages migrants, who we need as our population naturally ages.

I'd like to start, firstly, on the area of the National Housing Accord and how to build these homes. This target of 1.2 million homes that the government has committed to focusing on is absolutely critical. But I'm concerned that the target is seen as out of reach and that we don't have interim incentives for the states and local governments to take action now and to help them through the difficult planning and reforms that they need to take on and sell to the electorate over the next period of five years. They need some interim support to deliver this.

My second significant concern is about the skills and the materials. I agree with the RBA that, frankly, our infrastructure pipeline, both at the federal level and at all the state levels, is so significant that it is actually increasing construction costs in both labour and materials, at a time when our focus must be on housing. So I call on the government to delay the infrastructure spending that it can, particularly those large projects that are competing on those costs, and, at the same time, to reform the new fast-track migrant visa to ensure that construction workers are not kept out of that visa group, because we should, if we need them, be bringing in that group of construction workers as fast as we possibly can.

Thirdly, I would like to see the government continue to put pressure on the states, possibly through incentives, to make the reforms to rental rights that are absolutely required, in terms of both no-grounds evictions and increasing the incentives for longer-term leases. I recognise that what is actually before the Senate at the moment—and it's something I spoke on this morning—is the opportunity to increase social and affordable housing by improving those tax incentives and also, at the same time, to increase affordable housing and long-term leases for those people in build-to-rent environments. I think that's absolutely critical, and I urge the Senate to adopt those bills.

Finally, I'm going to talk about the tax system, because there are a number of taxes that affect the housing system. They are not the main driver, but they are key. Stamp duty is a tax on people who move. It is inequitable. It is a state tax, but the federal government can be part of driving the solution. Secondly, negative gearing and capital gains tax are not the main drivers of cost of housing, but they do play into the difficulties for people to own their own homes, and I think that is a reasonable thing for the government to be looking at.

There are few areas that are going to define the opportunities of a generation. Housing is one, and it is one that we must act on in this parliament and in every parliament in the future. (Time expired)

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