Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is also to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer update the House on how the government is delivering on its commitment to reduce pressure on housing affordability for all Australians, including in my electorate of Robertson and in the electorate of Bennelong? And is the Treasurer aware of any alternative approaches?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Robertson for her question and her keen interest in housing affordability in her electorate not just for those looking to buy a home but for those who are homeless and those who are dependent on affordable housing and social housing. She's been a champion of that for many years. And I commend the Assistant Minister to the Treasurer, the member for Deakin. Last night the Senate passed the Turnbull government's legislation to give to Australians who are saving for their first home deposit a tax cut that will help them save 30 per cent faster. That's what happened in the Senate. That will come back here and be supported again by the government. It was in the budget. This isn't a handout; this is practical assistance. It's allowing them to pay less tax on their hard-earned savings in order to buy their first home.

If you're saving for your first home in Ryde, Eastwood, Epping or Ermington, out there in the electorate of Bennelong, you need to know what the Labor Party did in this parliament to try to stop your tax cut. They voted against it in this chamber. They voted against it in the Senate. The candidate for the seat of Bennelong, Kristina Keneally, is out there supporting the Labor Party's position, which says that if you're saving for your first home deposit you should not get a tax cut; you should have to pay more tax on those savings and you should not be able to accelerate those savings by up to 30 per cent. Labor is putting the interests of their union boss mates, sitting on super fund boards, ahead of the interests of first home savers. That's who's pulling the shadow Treasurer's chain. He's the one who's getting all upset that the royal commission he asked for is now actually going to look at superannuation funds—the very people he's been trying to protect and run a protection racket for, for many years.

We're getting on with the job of addressing housing affordability. We've put $375 million extra into addressing homelessness issues, supporting those programs with the states. Our carefully calibrated measures through APRA have seen interest-only lending fall in the September quarter, from $30 billion down to $17 billion, and that has seen investor housing credit growth of just over 0.4 per cent, the slowest monthly growth in the past 17 months. We've seen the number of first home buyer loans in September increase by 31.3 per cent over the previous year. And we've seen growth in Sydney dwelling prices fall throughout the year, from 17.1 per cent in May to just over five per cent in November. The calibrated careful measures we've been taking to address investor heat in the Sydney and Melbourne housing markets have been having an effect, and we're getting a soft landing in those markets, which is good for the economy. Those opposite want to take a chainsaw to the housing market with their housing tax, with no regard—driven by envy, not economics, which is what this mob is always driven by, which would cause immeasurable harm to the Australian economy and crash confidence. And this Leader of the Opposition is a fraud— (Time expired)

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Treasurer will withdraw that term.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw, Mr Speaker.