Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

More than half the people in my electorate of Macnamara are renters. It's much higher than the national average of around 30 per cent. In Macnamara, it's more than one in two. Many people who are renting in Macnamara choose to live in my electorate because it is such a wonderful place to live. It is so vibrant. There is such a warm community. But it is difficult for families, and it's especially difficult for single people, as well, to get by on a low or a middle income. It's a misconception, I think, that the Reserve Bank's increases don't then flow onto the rental market as well. I think it's quite clear, from a lot of the feedback I'm hearing from my constituents, that landlords have had increases in their mortgage repayments, and that is being passed on to the renters as well. When you combine the natural rises in the costs of living, people are doing it pretty tough. So I wanted to come in here and acknowledge first that people are doing it tough.

Renters in my electorate are finding the rental prices quite alarming. Christina from Elwood wrote to me that she was recently issued with a 20 per cent rent increase. That would be challenging at any time, but it is particularly so after the last few years, with the lack of pay increases, with lockdowns and with childcare challenges. As a family of four who've lived in the same residence for the past five years, it was a devastating notice.

We are here to ease the cost of living. There has been significant work in the budget to ease cost-of-living pressures for families like Christina, but there's a lot more to do, and we recognise the pain that renters are feeling right now.