Russell Broadbent (Monash, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As the world erupts in death, despair and carnage, we still have regard for what is going on here in Australia. There are also people distressed here, not only about the world events. Forty-eight per cent of Australians are suffering mortgage stress. Sixty-one per cent of Australians are under rental stress. Immigration into this country, at the level we're having at the moment, is having an enormous effect on the availability of housing for those people. Remember: a third, a third, a third—a third of the people own a home; a third of the people are buying a home; and a third of the people are renting from those that can get a home. I'd say to you that, in these times, when people are using their disposable income to carry on at this time, that has to end. We, as a nation, have to have regard for those people that have gone off interest loans to variable loans—and they will go from two per cent to perhaps seven or eight per cent, which is an enormous drag on their funding, up to sometimes $1,500 a month and more for those who have borrowed more. We need to pay very careful attention to what is happening in our nation. We may have a per capita recession at the moment. Let's pray we don't go into a full blown recession.