Judi Moylan (Pearce, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

to move—

That the House:

(1)

recognises the serious state of housing availability and affordability in the public, not for profit and private sector in many cities and towns in Australia and the hardship it causes those on low and fixed incomes;

(2)

notes that:

(a)

it is having a serious impact on many in the community including those on low and fixed incomes, pensioners, disability pensioners, veterans, young families and students;

(b)

the situation has been exacerbated by the dereliction of duty of State governments in failing to maintain adequate stocks of public rental properties, with unacceptably long waiting-lists for public housing;

(c)

in Western Australia (WA), for example, it has been reported that there are 16,000 families on the Homeswest waiting list in May 2008 with similar trends in other states;

(d)

there has been a contraction of approximately 30,000 public dwellings, which, factoring in population growth over the last decade, amounts to a loss of 100,000 dwellings in the public sector;

(e)

this dereliction of duty is increasing the reliance on the private rental market where housing is in short supply, new building approvals are plummeting and rental vacancy rates are at the lowest levels in 20 years;

(f)

Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA) is not adequately addressing the gap between the high level of rent being paid and what is affordable and that in many areas there are few, if any, housing choices available;

(g)

despite the twice yearly adjustment of CRA to the Consumer Price Index of 4.3 per cent, the average rental increase has been 7.1 per cent;

(h)

the median weekly rent of three bedroom houses has increased on a nationally weighted average by 46.75 per cent, and in fact, from June 1998 to June 2007 rents have increased by 93.55 per cent in WA and by 105.88 per cent in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT);

(i)

rent assistance as a percentage of median weekly rent in WA has dropped from 31.8 per cent in June 2001 to 20.4 per cent in June 2007 and in the ACT from 25.6 per cent in June 1998 to 17.4 per cent in June 2007;

(j)

overall, renting has become less affordable nationally even for those in receipt of CRA;

(k)

according to national figures from the Australian Government Housing data set in June 2006, over one-third of CRA recipients pay more than 30 per cent of their income on rent, after CRA is factored in; and

(l)

public housing approvals have plummeted to 131 new council approvals in March 2008, well short of the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ decade average of 350 new public housing approvals monthly; and

(3)

calls on the Federal Government to:

(a)

work with State governments through COAG to urgently address the national shortage of public, not for profit and private housing including delays in local government development approvals;

(b)

urgently review the adequacy of CRA paid to those on low and fixed incomes;

(c)

investigate making CRA or similar payment available to eligible recipients who are purchasing their own homes and who are experiencing severe mortgage stress, with the aim of keeping people in their own homes and taking some of the pressures off the public and private sector rental market;

(d)

consider changing the CRA formula to reflect the lack of choice and the increasing cost of rent beyond inflation, by linking CRA to actual rent using the highest median rent in each area;

(e)

target a proportion of assistance for development of housing in high employment growth areas, in recognition that for those looking for work in areas of high labour demand, high rents are acting as a disincentive for some people to escape the poverty cycle; and

(f)

pay particular attention to development options for multi-dwelling supported accommodation models to provide for those with disabilities who may formally have been housed in institutions.

Damian Hale (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

to move—

That the House:

(1)

commends the Australian Government for its Economic Security Strategy initiative in the face of a global financial crisis;

(2)

supports the extra assistance to sustain economic growth and the cost of living pressures for rural and regional Australia;

(3)

acknowledges the Government’s efforts to ensure that pensioners, seniors and carers are included in this strategy while the Harmer Committee of Inquiry continues to ensure long term issues related to the most vulnerable in our community are properly assessed; and

(4)

acknowledges the Government’s efforts to help families receiving ‘key family payments’. (Notice given 20 October 2008.)

John Forrest (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

to move—

That the House:

(1)

notes with concern the high level of market concentration in the retail grocery sector;

(2)

notes this is a situation that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission describes as ‘workably competitive’ and that this is not a term found in competition law; and

(3)

calls on the Government to address the issue of market concentration in the grocery sector and to implement policies to achieve improved outcomes for consumers, food manufacturers and producers. (Notice given 20 October 2008.)