Garth Hamilton (Groom, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) recognises the importance of home ownership to Australian families and that home ownership remains the Australian dream;

(2) notes:

(a) the increasing financial pressure on households with many Australians suffering mortgage stress; and

(b) research by Roy Morgan that an increased level of mortgage stress is being experienced across the country;

(3) acknowledges that the:

(a) high spending, high taxing policies of the Government has entrenched inflation and failed to support Australians struggling with high interest rates; and

(b) Government has failed to take the cost of living crisis seriously, with real disposable incomes collapsing by 7.5 per cent, per capita since the Government came to power, as a result of higher prices, higher taxes and higher interest rates; and

(4) calls on the Government to:

(a) admit that the Government's policies are causing financial hardship for many Australians and fuelling the cost of living crisis; and

(b) immediately implement policies to address the high level of inflation and protect Australians from mortgage stress.

The great Australian dream of home ownership is not going away. It hasn't left the recent generation. It's such an important part of our national story, our national fabric. I think back to when I was a kid and our family history of how important the home was. My grandfather returned from the Second World War II too late to access a soldier settlement scheme. He'd been injured when a home-made still of his blew up in Papua New Guinea—a story that still raises a smile. When he came back, he missed that scheme, but, with his own hands, he built a jig to make bricks and started building a home, brick by brick, out in the scrub on the hill that looks over Warialda. He worked on it every week. It took him years to do it, but he was so proud because he finished that home the week before my mother was born. She was born in a home that he'd made, and he kept that home. They lived there for their whole lives. I was lucky enough, as a concreter in Ipswich—in Darra particularly—to watch Vietnamese Australians coming here and having their first homes built. We were building their driveways and their paths. People were proud to come to this great country and have a home of their own, something that was theirs and that was important. It was their statement to the world saying, 'Here I am.' That is not going away, as tough as times are. That is not an aspect that will die.

We want it to keep going. We want people to have a place of their own where not just the economy but the nation and our stories are continued. All the things that make us great happen in the home. They're passed down through families. We want this, but it's important we point out at this time, as have many in the media, that the government, via its fiscal policy and via the budget it has just released, is making it harder and harder for that next generation of Australians to realise that great dream of Australian homeownership. It's not just me. We can look at economists across the spectrum who have pointed out the failings of this last budget. The CBA economics team said:

We had flagged that fiscal policy was one of the risks that could delay our base case that monetary policy easing would start in November this year.

They say:

The risk is now more real that the first interest rate cut could be delayed and that the neutral cash rate is higher than we currently estimate due to the expansionary fiscal setting and the high level of investment in the economy.

That's because of this budget. KPMG has a similar line, having pointed out, 'In the lead-up to the budget, there was a growing disconnect between monetary policy and fiscal policy, with one pressing on the brakes and the other pushing down on the accelerator.' KPMG Chief Economist Brendan Rynne says, 'The government has chosen to push its foot down even harder.' He says:

A neutral, even slightly contractionary, budget would have been in order to help tackle inflation. But this is not a budget designed to consolidate the nation's fiscal position and commence the task of gradually returning the budget to a sustainable position.

It's not just these opinions; it's outcomes. The cost of health has risen nine per cent since this government came to power. The cost of food has risen 10 per cent. The cost of education has risen 11 per cent across the board. The cost of housing has risen 12 per cent. The cost of public transport has risen 13 per cent. The costs are rising. The narrow path the RBA set for us now stretches out even further into the distance.

But there are things we can do to address this. There was a pathway that this government could have taken to reduce inflation. That would have been to pull back on its spending. When we raise these questions, we're asked: 'What would you cut? What terrible cuts would you make?' I'll start with the billion dollars for a quantum computer owned by an overseas company. I'll start with billions of dollars of more subsidies into the renewable energy sector. Those are some simple cuts that we can make right off the top, but the point is—

The member for Moreton will know this very well: Labor have deployed the bandaid of immigration to cover the fact that we are in a per capita recession. The only thing keeping us out of a recession is the streams of numbers who are being let in now via this open-door immigration policy, which is driving up housing demand and prices. If you're a young kid out there looking to buy your own home, trying to save, trying to get on that property ladder and turning up to an open home and you're thinking, 'Wow; these lines are getting longer and longer,' they are. It's a direct policy of this government to paper over the cracks in its fiscal policy. They won't do the hard work of reducing spending, but they will deploy the bandaid of higher immigration to keep them out of a recession. That is the only reason that they stick with this: to cover their tracks when they have failed to provide economic credibility.

Zoe McKenzie (Flinders, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Tania Lawrence (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is an interesting motion from the brave member for Groom. Here the member wishes to raise housing policy, where our government has already been much more active in the last two years than the previous coalition government was for over nine. He wishes to raise inflation, which we have reduced over the last 18 months after the Morrison government left Australia with rising inflation. Two years ago, when we came to office, the inflation rate was 6.1 per cent and rising. The member will desperately want to say it was rising for something we did, but he knows the truth. The inflation rate sits at 3.6 per cent today. The member for Groom should be congratulating the government if he is truly concerned about inflation. There are many people in Hasluck paying a mortgage, well over 50 per cent of households. All I can say is I am glad they have a federal Albanese Labor government willing to act on housing, willing to act on inflation and willing to act on cost-of-living challenges, because if the coalition were in power right now we would all be in much worse position on every measure.

A housing crisis doesn't appear suddenly. We were elected with a host of policies on housing. If there is a housing crisis now, and there is, then it is either because the previous housing minister didn't know there was a problem, which would be an indictment, or he knew but didn't do enough to deal with it, which would also be an indictment. It wasn't, in fact, until the second Morrison ministry that the coalition bothered to even have a minister named for housing and they didn't sit the member for Deakin in the cabinet. Before that we'd have to go back to the second Rudd ministry, where we find the Minister for Housing and Homelessness, the Honourable Julie Collins, in the cabinet, where she sits now. That by itself shows the real difference between the coalition's attitude to housing policy, which is mainly about scoring political points, and the Albanese government's real commitment.

But the other thing that it shows is the difference in our commitment to funding. We have $6.2 billion in this year's budget, part of $32 billion of new housing initiatives and extensions by this government. The $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, the HAFF, will support the construction of more social and affordable homes into the future. The coalition voted against the HAFF. The Greens delayed it by six months in order to grandstand, but the coalition voted against it.

The member for Groom and his colleagues have had a bad record in opposing legacy programs. They opposed Medicare, they opposed universal superannuation, they managed to oppose the $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund and now they have opposed the Housing Australia Future Fund. They had a chance to redeem themselves a little by supporting the Help to Buy legislation but it looks like they're opposing that too. They are opposing a lot of housing policy but they still have time to bring motions like this one.

We have also provided for a $9.3 billion national agreement on social housing and homelessness, doubled Commonwealth homelessness funding, committed $1 billion for housing for women and children fleeing family violence, and we're investing in the construction industry with targeted fee-free TAFE places. There's more but I have only got the five minutes.

I'll mention instead, as the motion mentions, the cost of living. We have taken a wide array of measures to assist with the family budget. Many of these would never have been enacted or even dreamt of by the coalition: investments in Medicare, bulk-billing, cheaper medicines, free urgent care clinics, fee-free TAFE, tertiary prac payments, energy bill relief, back-to-back rental assistance increases, cheaper child care, expanded parental leave, so many more things. We want people to earn more and keep more of what they earn so, yes, wages are rising for the first time in 10 years as a result of deliberate government policy and, yes, from July, every Australian taxpayer will get a tax cut. We have taken the hard decisions to combat inflation while providing cost-of-living relief.

Where was the member for Groom when we capped gas prices? The opposition's unwillingness to take action would have seen inflation much higher than it is now. In the budget just delivered, the government's responsible targeted cost-of-living relief, including the energy bill payment and the increase to rent assistance, is estimated to reduce headline inflation by half a percentage point over the year and is not expected to add to pressure on inflation more broadly.

In summary, the government's significant investments and national leadership in housing and its targeted and anti-inflationary cost-of-living assistance mean that Australians generally, particularly those that are doing it tough, are in a much better position than they would have been if there was a coalition government now. I am sure I am absolutely not alone when I say that I oppose this measure.

Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support this motion on the importance of home ownership to Australians which has been brought by the member for Groom and I thank the member for bringing this motion to the House. Just by way of opening, I have been present for the honourable member for Hasluck's speech. It was interesting that she spent the first two minutes of her five-minute allotted time not discussing the importance of home ownership, but instead talking about all the things that the coalition, allegedly or apparently, did or didn't do when they were in. I might just remind the member that this government of which she is a part has now been in for two years.

Homeownership is deeply embedded in the Australian psyche. It's called 'the great Australian dream'. The notion has been fundamental to the way our country has developed since Federation: a largely classless society built on egalitarian principles, built on the notion that most Australians are able to aspire to and achieve homeownership. Australia's founders clearly believed that this should be a property-owning democracy. They came to this view because they knew that the line upon which division is most etched in society, particularly having regard to former British society, is the ownership of property. Therefore, they decided that everyone needs to be given the chance to own the home in which they live, needs to be given the opportunity to purchase their first home.

This is one area where this government has really let Australians down. Homeownership has never been less affordable than under this government. Let's look first of all at the deposit that's required. From the 1960s right through even to the 1990s, it took on average months, or a small number of years, to save for the average deposit for the average Australian home on an average Australian wage or salary. Now it is 12 years. To service a loan in Sydney now takes an income of over $280,000 per year. This is making homeownership absolutely impossible for gen Z and absolutely impossible for millennials. We can just look at the numbers. In the 1970s the average age of first-home buyers was 25 years. It's now 36 years. The seventh largest lender in Australia to first-home buyers is now the 'bank of mum and dad'. This means that for the first time in Australia we're approaching a position where whether or not you own a home will depend almost entirely upon the circumstances of your birth. That is not the attitude, not the culture that has been Australia—and it's untenable.

What could the Albanese Labor government be doing? First of all, it could be taking some of the pressure off the demand side. That is, it could be reining in inflation, and bringing back a sensible and sustainable immigration policy that links immigration to the existing housing and infrastructure that we have here. At present, we have four immigrants coming in for every one dwelling being built in Australia. This is unplanned and unsustainable. We need immigrants in Australia. Contemporary Australia has been built on the back of immigration. But the policy that has been introduced by this government is unsustainable, and it is locking Australians out of the housing market.

Housing supply is something this government should be addressing. While largely the remit of state and local governments, federal government does have levers to assist with supply and could be further assisting first-home buyers. It could be incentivising local and state governments to increase housing densities in line with existing infrastructure and transport hubs. There is plenty the government could be doing and should be doing to increase supply.

I'll turn briefly to mortgage stress, because the motion refers to mortgage stress. We now have a large number of Australians—over 1.6 million, or 31.4 per cent of mortgage holders—experiencing mortgage stress. This is linked directly to the 12 interest rate rises in a row that we have seen under the Albanese Labor government. Again, reining in inflation to control interest rates is something this government could and should be doing through its fiscal policy. The Albanese Labor government is letting Australians down on homeownership and is letting Australians down on mortgage stress.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Groom has raised a motion to talk about homeownership. Sadly, his party wasn't so keen on housing during the decade they were actually in charge, let alone on taking action on any of the issues they've raised. I note that the member for Hughes—who doesn't look anything like the former member for Hughes!—was raising that immigration issue in relation to housing: a dog whistle so loud that the canines are complaining about it! It is shameful. And now what have we seen the opposition do? The only action they—and the Greens—have taken on housing is to say no. The message they're sending to Australians is, 'We don't want to help you into a home.' The Leader of the Opposition in the budget reply speech—that eagerly anticipated document—did not announce one dollar of funding to take action on housing issues. The Greens, in their relentless pursuit of headlines, have come up with a housing proposal that experts have already called a 'very expensive and arbitrary lottery'.

The coalition is a one-trick pony when it comes to superannuation. They see superannuation solely as personal savings to be raided for a home deposit. It doesn't matter that the member for Groom and his colleagues would decimate hardworking Australians' retirement funds and, with it, their long-term financial security. Independent economist Saul Eslake described the idea of using superannuation for a housing deposit as 'one of the worst public policy decisions of the 21st century'. You'll always have that, coalition; you'll always have that. The Super Members Council agreed, indicating that this would increase property prices by nine per cent and could cost taxpayers a cumulative $1 trillion—private stimulus as lighter fluid into an already overheated market. Brilliant idea! I'm sure that the former Deputy Prime Minister will come up and try and distance the Nationals from that madness. It seems that even the Deputy Leader of the Opposition has realised that this isn't a sound economic plan. The deputy leader said, 'Young people need their super for retirement, not to try to take pressure off an urban housing bubble.'

The challenges in the housing sector that we face today weren't created by Labor, but we fully take responsibility to deal with them. Labor understands that it's still the Australian dream to own your own home. Labor understands the importance of having a safe and stable place to call home, and Labor understands that Australians need to feel their homes are secure during a turbulent economic time, without sacrificing their long-term financial security. That's why Labor's Homes for Australia plan was a key part of our budget. Our goal is to build 1.2 million homes by the end of the decade. Yes, it's an ambitious goal, but it's supported by $6.2 billion in the budget and supported by directing $1 billion towards the infrastructure needed to build those new homes more quickly: the roads, the sewerage, the energy and water connections needed for new developments and more social housing. We're backing it up with more fee-free TAFE places in the construction industry so we can train the tradies we need to build our new homes, while the opposition are trying to stop tradies coming in.

In partnership with the states and territories, the Help to Buy scheme is an innovative policy which will give 40,000 Australians on low and middle incomes the opportunity to purchase a home. The scheme will support the purchase and the construction of new and existing homes, including houses, house and land packages, townhouses and apartments. It will help participants to overcome the hurdle of saving for a deposit and the hurdle of servicing a mortgage. Labor's housing reforms are the most significant in a generation. They include the Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee—something that I'm sure all sensible Nats would be supportive of—and the expanded Home Guarantee Scheme, which has already helped more than 110,000 people into home ownership in the last two years. The Housing Australia Future Fund is the single biggest investment in social and affordable housing in more than a decade. The new $9.3 billion five-year national agreement on social housing and homelessness with the states and territories focuses on reducing homelessness, providing crisis support, and building and repairing social housing. As part of this, we've doubled the Commonwealth homelessness funding to $400 million every year.

We know tough times are here for a lot of Australians. Labor is working hard to reduce the inflation levels that we inherited, and we're making some good progress. There is more to be done, obviously, but, to go from an inflation rate of six per cent to three per cent is a good start. Labor's ambitious housing reform agenda has already made significant progress in tackling the housing challenges that were left to us by those opposite. Labor is helping more Australians into their own homes, and we'll keep doing this vital and necessary work. I say to the member for Groom: step away from your coalition policy bin fire and put that lighter fluid down.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Let's put some facts on the table and some common sense into this debate, unlike the member for Moreton's contribution. Let's talk about what we did in our decade of government: 220,000 trade apprentices—a record high, member for Moreton—and 1,213 major transport projects supporting 100,000 jobs. I say that because, when you build homes, look through state government planning laws and help out with councils, you need to have the supportive infrastructure, and that's what we did.

What did Labor do when they came to government? They put a 90-day review—code for 'delay'—into all the infrastructure projects. It ended up being more than 200 days. That stymied so much of the development and activity in that space. There were 135,000 new home projects backed by HomeBuilder, and I compliment the member for Deakin in his role as the minister. Now, of course, he's the shadow minister in this portfolio space. The member for Moreton talked about dog whistling and the member for Hughes. I think that was crass, but let's look at the facts, shall we?

Immigration hit an all-time high of 765,900 people last year. Total immigration numbers have hit another all-time high, with 100,000 new arrivals this February alone. If you feel that those are big numbers, consider this: in the Howard era Australia averaged 110,000 arrivals a year. So that's 110,000 a year compared to 100,000 just in February alone. What is that doing to the housing market? I'll tell you what it's doing. It's placing that much unnecessary pressure, mainly, on the housing market in metropolitan Australia and the housing market in the east coast of Australia, where most Australians live.

Labor is not doing anything to address that, but what they are doing is being very worried by the prospect of the Greens looking at taking them down a path they don't want to go—that is, taking over the states' responsibility to provide social housing. I genuinely fear what might happen after the next election, whenever that might be—whether it's later this year and Labor start to panic and hit the double dissolution trigger or whether it's in May next year, when it is due—and fear, potentially, the numbers falling the way they shouldn't and Labor forming a very, very dangerous alliance with the Greens. An Albanese-Bandt government would not be good for this nation.

We've seen construction companies collapse in this nation. They continue 'to fall like dominoes'. Those are not my words; that's the Property Investor from 17 January 2024. The trend only worsened in the second half of 2023, and 'around 100 more Victorian homeowners are in limbo as another builder folds', the report relayed. According to the Housing Industry Association, the construction market is facing one of the worst storms since the energy crisis in the mid-seventies. What we're seeing is construction companies going to the wall day after day after day, and, if they're not going to the wall, they are doing what Dennis Family Homes started to do in late 2022, and that is curtailing regional activities.

A range of factors have created the perfect storm for the demise of builders in the country. Lawyer Jennifer Dizon works with the commercial litigation insolvency firm Hicks Oakley Chessell Williams. She said to ABC News:

A large number of builders have faced economic distress due to significant increases in interest rates and cost of materials, labour shortages and supply-chain issues.

Of course, she is so right. I know that, whether it's in the housing construction business or infrastructure construction business, it is just so hard. We've seen recently that Stevens Construction, based on the New South Wales Central Coast, has unfortunately been forced to stop work effective immediately. That was just last month. Australia continues to battle through its worst phase for the construction industry in 50 years, and it's on Labor's watch.

What is Labor doing about it? Well, they're talking about everything but. They only realised there was a cost-of-living crisis last year after the Voice referendum was defeated. They come to this place and talk about everything that regional and Middle Australia don't want them to talk about. Get your heads in the game; the game is housing and making sure that we address the cost-of-living crisis.

Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Our government understands that too many Australians, after 10 years of absolutely disgraceful government, are facing serious housing challenges. We need to build more homes more quickly and in more parts of the country. That's why our government has an ambitious goal of building 1.2 million homes by the end of this decade—a decade that will be marked by the construction of homes, unlike the last decade of those opposite in power.

The latest budget, 2024-25, included $6.2 billion in new investment to build more homes to support Australians, bringing our government's new housing initiatives to $32 billion—that's with a 'b'. The budget commits $1 billion to get homes built immediately, and funding for states and territories also to build the roads, sewerage, energy, water and community infrastructure we need for new homes and for additional social housing—infrastructure that was let slide for so long under those opposite. Our policies were informed, carefully considered and guided by experts.

We know that the market response to deliver new housing supply has been impacted by COVID factors; however, that variety of factors mean that the economics of new construction are a bit out of kilter and we do acknowledge that, which is why we need to lean in. The Reserve Bank estimates that overall construction prices have risen almost 40 per cent since late 2019. In simple terms, supply has not kept up with demand, resulting in higher rents and house price rises. While the Albanese government is not promising an immediate fix to the solution because that would be dishonest, we are activating our plan called Homes for Australia to build those 1.2 million new homes over the next five years. We are also helping Australians to build, rent and buy.

The Homes for Australia plan focuses on four key actions: training more tradies, finding more partnerships to grow the workforce, kick-starting construction by cutting red tape and getting those approvals moving, and providing incentives to state and territory governments to get homes built quickly, to meet and beat 1.2 million home target. In addition, there are funds for veteran and domestic violence housing, and we have seen that in my electorate of Solomon, as well as the recently announced $4 billion—with an 'b'—partnership between the federal and territory governments for remote housing. I think all honourable members understand how much of a priority that is.

Other elements include the requirement for universities to increase student accommodation stock to take pressure off the local rental market. I congratulate Charles Darwin University on today's announcement of a new student accommodation building expected to house around 350 students in the CBD of Darwin. Big increases to Commonwealth rent assistance will help more than 5,000 Territory households with the cost of living.

On housing and immigration in Darwin and Palmerston in the electorate I am so proud to serve, we know that whether it is skilled migration or international students, many sectors of our economy depend on new Territorians. All businesses in the Territory know how tight the labour market is. My office deals daily with businesses who need workers with those essential skills to build a local economy, to provide care for Territorians and to help us fulfil the Territory's potential while we get our young people trained up and working.

This place based approach to international students and migrant workers is essential for the development of the north, and I know that our government understands that. An important component of Homes for Australia is the Help to Buy scheme, which will be life changing for many Australians, indeed, many Territorians, and those living in my electorate. A lot of people renting now could afford a mortgage but aren't able to save up to 20 per cent deposit. The Help to Buy scheme helps those people get over that hurdle of a deposit, bringing home ownership back into reach for thousands of Australians and Territorians, particularly those that are renting. Help to Buy is targeted at helping low- and middle-income Australians get into a home with just a two per cent deposit. The government will support eligible homebuyers with an equity contribution, which is up to 40 per cent for new homes and 30 per cent for existing homes. It can also help eligible new homeowners save hundreds every month on their mortgage repayments.

I will continue to work with the member for Lingiari, the minister for housing, the NT government and industry to build more Territory homes.

Keith Wolahan (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Deputy Speaker Vamvakinou, I congratulate you on your appointment to be sitting in that Chair.

Opposition Member:

An opposition member interjecting

Keith Wolahan (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Hawke isn't sitting in the chair—I noticed that—and God help us when he does. The census tells us a lot about ourselves. In the last census, we learned something we instinctively know, which is those born between 1981 and 1996, otherwise known as millennials, are our largest generation. I sit on the House economics committee with the member for Hawke and we see all of the data that most Australians see about the cost-of-living pressures in our country. When you see that data broken up by age, that cohort, millennials, are being hit the absolute hardest. Their incomes aren't very high to start with and the cost of utilities, of rent, of HECS are continually ballooning.

When you look at a median salary—and I would like to take you to a median-income scenario—that person in Australia would probably have a monthly income of about $3,800; $452 would go out in tax. With a net income of $3,300, there are Medicare levies, there are rates, there's HECS, there's rent—the median rent in my area is about $1,500—utilities of $300, groceries of $500, home insurance of $125, public transport costs of $72 and phone costs of about $100. And then, when you add basic insurance, someone in my electorate on a median income has, if they don't spend any money on anything else, about $465 left in their pocket. I haven't included going to the movies, going to concerts, going on a holiday—all the things that can bring people joy in life. That's what they've got left.

When you take the median home cost in my electorate of just over $1 million—so half of them are more expensive, half of them are less—the time it would take that person to save a 20 per cent deposit of $256,000, including stamp duty, is 45 years. So it is no wonder that, throughout our country, there are dining table conversations between generations where we are hearing that people are giving up on the idea of homeownership because on that maths it doesn't add up.

We can stand here, in motions like this, and throw shade on the other side about what you did wrong or what we did great, but the truth is that all sides of politics have let this generation down. So let's start there. And when we start there, we can then begin to look at what are the levers we can pull that will make a difference. If we do that, we can actually start to look this generation in the eye and say that we are in this place to care for your interests and not ourselves, not our party, and so when you hear that shade being thrown from the other side, know that they are not putting your interests first.

It's a complex problem. There are federal levers; there are state levers; there are local council issues. But let's start from the position that we are in now is unacceptable. Even if somehow, magically, we reduce those 45 years for that median income for the median house, that person is probably not going to get a loan. They're not going to compete with the lack of supply that is pushing them out of being competitive in those auctions and those sales. I thought it was bad several years ago when my family bought a house, but it is monumentally harder now. You know that, and you expect us to do something about it.

There's no one lever that's going to fix it. Anyone who promises that is being dishonest. But we have to recognise that there is a capacity for government to build houses, build schools, build hospitals, build roads and preserve green space in a way that is proportionate. That is why migration is part of the mix. It's not anti-migrant; we're still going to have a very generous, if not one of the most generous, migration programs in the world—as we should. When you hear the other side talk about that, they know that too. They will say on some forums, 'We're bringing migration down,' and then on other forums they will accuse people of dog whistling. It can't be both. Both sides know that's a problem, but we must recognise this is a fundamental structural problem with our economy and our society, and we need to fix it.

Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Deputy Speaker McKenzie, I also congratulate you on your elevation to the Speaker's panel. Well done.

Before the member for Menzies departs, I note that he raised the issue of the median price of $1 million for a house in his electorate and the high deposit involved in that. I say to the member for Menzies: get behind Help to Buy. It's currently stuck in the Senate with your Liberal colleagues and the Greens, who are holding it up. Under that scheme, an $850,000 house in Melbourne could be bought with a two per cent deposit under a shared-equity scheme that all the state governments, including former Liberal state governments, have got behind. So, Member for Menzies, we are looking at solutions. I urge you to urge your colleagues to get behind them.

I thank the member for Groom for moving this motion, but his frustrations, frankly, are misplaced and come two years too late. I join with the member in recognising just how important homeownership is to Australian families. He is right when he says Australian households are doing it tough. We know this. But the member could not be more wrong in claiming that this government has failed to take the cost-of-living crisis seriously. We inherited from the member's former government an economy of increasing interest rates and growing repayments which have impacted household budgets. When we came to office, inflation had a 6 in front of it. Now it's a 3.

We know it's still so tough for a lot of Australians, and that is why attacking the cost of living is Labor's No. 1 priority. In a few short weeks, every Australian taxpayer will get a tax cut and keep more of what they earn when the Albanese Labor government's cost-of-living tax cuts come into effect from 1 July. I can't say it enough: nine in 10 taxpayers in my electorate of Lyons will get a bigger tax cut because of the changes this government made to stage 3. It is a terrific change—the right change made for the right reasons.

It's just one of the ways that we are working to make life more affordable for people and families in my electorate and for all Australians. We are delivering tax cuts for every taxpayer and energy rebates for every household, working to boost real wages, fight inflation and drive fairer prices for consumers. The hallmark of our government is more jobs, higher wages, bigger tax cuts and a future made in Australia. That is what this government is delivering. Labor is wiping around $3 billion in student debt and making medicines cheaper. We're providing a better deal for every working parent by paying super on government paid parental leave. It is clear the Albanese government is committed to delivering real cost-of-living relief, helping to reduce inflation pressures.

When it comes specifically to housing, it's very simple: Labor wants more homes while the Liberals voted for less. We have already committed $32 billion over the next decade, including more than $6 billion in this year's budget. We have done more in two years than the former government did in 10. In his budget reply, the Leader of the Opposition did not announce one dollar in funding to address Australia's housing challenges. There was plenty of dog-whistling but no money, no detail and no policy. Labor's housing policies focus on more supply and more affordability for buyers and renters. The Albanese government's housing agenda is squarely aimed at boosting the supply of all housing—more social and affordable rental homes, more homes to rent and more homes to buy.

After a decade of Liberal neglect, it's clear that Australia does not have enough homes. The Liberals left it to the private market, and there has clearly been massive market failure. Too many Australians face serious housing challenges as a result, and that's why we're stepping in. We know we need to build more homes more quickly in more parts of the country, particularly in the regions. It's why the Albanese government has an ambitious goal of building 1.2 million homes by the end of the decade through our Homes for Australia Plan. We are doing more in two years than those opposite did in 10.

I'll finish where I started: Help to Buy. It's currently stuck in the Senate because the Liberals and the Greens simply will not get behind this shared-equity scheme. We have similar schemes already operating at the state level. They work really well. We are trying to get it operating at the federal level. Get behind it. It will get more young people into homes more quickly. They can get on the first rung of the ownership ladder. Get behind Help to Buy. Get behind homeownership for young Australians.

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

Over the past year or so, I've been following Matt Barrie, an award-winning Australian technology entrepreneur who has his finger well and truly on Australia's housing pulse—a pulse that is weak, sluggish and in desperate need of immediate resuscitation. As Matt said recently:

The root of all evil in this country is the astronomical price of housing. Once you understand all the ramifications of that—it really is the problem that is the root of all problems.

I couldn't agree more, Matt. Matt also delivered a sobering message. He said:

… it is now mathematically impossible for a household on the median income to pay off a mortgage in Australia …

What happened to the lucky country? What happened to the clever country? Since when did the offer of a car park to sleep in for homeless women and children become a solution? The current situation is that, despite the Reserve Bank increasing interest rates to get a hold of inflation, property prices in capital cities in Australia continued to surge another 20 per cent last year. Matt Barrie said a home is considered astronomically unaffordable by economists if it costs more than five times the average salary. In Australia, the average capital city home is nine times the average salary of Australians and, in Sydney, it's an eye-watering 13 times. So who's to blame? This has been an issue on the horizon for decades now, so the blame has apportioned to all sides of politics, but Labor's immigration policy—bringing in 518,000 people in 2022-23—has served only to inflame this already hot issue to the point where now homeownership is unaffordable for the vast majority of the Australian population.

What is the solution? Economist Yanis Varoufakis has told the Equity Mates Investing podcast that another one million homes were needed in Australia within the next three years. He said that any measures to increase the affordability of housing, such as lowering interest rates or government grants, would only increase prices. Australia is in the middle of a dire housing crisis, and the impact on families with young children is particularly distressing. Not only is housing ridiculously expensive both to rent and to buy but the homes are simply not there. In response to this, the government claim they can build over a million houses in just five years. As it said in the great story, 'They're dreaming.'

Australians need these homes desperately, but there are significant limitations that will prevent this ambitious target from being met. Firstly, new housing starts came in at the lowest level in more than a decade last year: 90,000 below an annual target of 240,000 homes. Secondly, Australian builders and construction firms are collapsing at an unprecedented rate. According to ASIC, between July 2022 and April 2023, 1,709 building and construction companies across Australia went into administration. These aren't just small companies. These are big names like Porter Davis, ProBuild, Pivotal Homes and many others who have been operating for decades. Thirdly, across New South Wales, migrant families are apparently taking up more than 35,000 social housing tenancies—over 22 per cent of all tenancies in the state. And, on top of this, there's a dire shortage of skilled building workers. Between collapsing construction companies, the scarcity of skilled workers and booming population, how on earth can we build enough houses for Australians and for the hundreds of thousands of migrants hoping Australia will give them a better life?

The government of the day can make all the promises they like, and they can throw billions of taxpayers' funds to the states but, at the end of the day, the homes are simply not being built. We need to rebuild our collapsing construction industry, and we need to do that quickly before the housing crisis becomes a humanitarian crisis. The facts show there is stark inequality in my generation's ability to own a home compared to that of much younger generations. Wages are not going up at the rate that the cost of housing is going up. In fact, at the moment, wages have the greatest ever decline in terms of purchasing power. For 20- to 24-year-olds, the real purchasing power of wages went back to 2008 levels in the last year.

We all know that governments love to talk about how they're going to solve our problems, but actually doing it a different story. The truth is that, contrary to what we are told, Australia's housing crisis isn't a very complicated problem to fix. In fact, the solution is rather simple. Australia's priority should be to create an environment where the RBA is encouraged to reduce interest rates, which the recent federal budget certainly hasn't allowed. With lower interest rates, levels of investment in housing can return to what they used to be. Naturally this will encourage more houses to be built, thus increasing the supply of houses to build and to rent. There is also another underlying problem for our young people which no doubt also has its role to play in the housing crisis at hand. Young people—even those with high-level qualifications—are struggling to get into the jobs that they want. This may be due to things like the receding economy or the increased presence of international students, but the point is this: the barrier to home ownership and job choice, which are significant parts of growing up, is too high and is and is affecting our kids' attitude to life.

Zoe McKenzie (Flinders, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I call the member for Macnamara.

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

Thank you, Deputy Speaker. I congratulate you on your elevation to the Speaker's panel. May you deliberate fairly and fearlessly in your important role.

I'm very pleased to speak on this important motion about housing. I have been taking some notice of the opposition's remarks throughout this debate—not that much, as the member for Hawke has pointed out, but some. I think it's important to make a couple of observations. First of all, for those opposite to come into this place and lecture the government about action on housing takes a particular bit of gall, because they decided when they were in government that investment in social and affordable housing was a matter for the states. They didn't want to have anything to do with it. They washed their hands of any investment in social housing. They took themselves away from the table and didn't invest a penny in the construction of social housing. You'd think that, after spending a decade in government, their keystone policy—to ensure that more people can buy a home—wouldn't be released in the final hour before midnight before the election, after the former member for Goldstein announced some policy that they then decided they were going to adopt. That policy was, of course, raiding one's own superannuation in order to pay for a home.

I'm not sure if those opposite have ever had a conversation with a young person. The average superannuation for young Australians who are looking to get into their own home is not the hundreds of thousands of dollars that you may need in order to try and get a deposit; it's often $15,000 to $20,000. A lot of young people are casual workers or haven't been able to build up the sort of superannuation that you would need in order to get a deposit. Those who were the former government—they're the opposition right now—are only interested in basically saying to young people, who don't have much superannuation, 'You can just raid what little superannuation you've got to not be able to pay for a deposit in and of itself.' So the policy doesn't really make any sense. It's also unfair and won't do anything to improve supply of housing, which is so desperately needed.

Let's just say for one second that you did want to help people get into the housing market. The Help to Buy schemes are working really well across the country. State governments are working through these schemes quite successfully, and the Albanese government has announced that we want to have a national Help to Buy scheme. That will allow people on lower and middle incomes to get into the housing market with something like a two per cent deposit. The government would help take equity and look to partner with people in order to bring down the total cost of a mortgage. It's a pretty straightforward financial model, and it's one that has worked in the past.

What did those opposite do—the so-called bastions of home ownership, as they like to pat themselves on the back for being? They teamed up with the Greens—the Greens!—to block Labor's Help to Buy scheme. If you were serious about trying to get people into the housing market, why would you make it harder for people who can't afford the five per cent or 10 per cent deposit to get a mortgage? Why would you try to prevent people who can afford only a two per cent deposit from getting into the housing market? That says that those opposite are more interested in coming into this place and playing politics than in actually helping people to get into the housing market.

We have a different approach. We want to invest in the homes that Australians need. We've got a huge program of investment to finally bring the federal government back to the table, in terms of the investment in social housing, to ensure that there is investment to increase supply across the housing spectrum for home owners, renters and those in affordable or social housing. We don't want people being pushed from rental stress into the social housing system, which we know is a real and constant pressure that Australians are facing, with the cost-of-living pressures. So we want to make sure that there is enough supply. We also want to make sure that there is investment in domestic and family violence shelters so that people who do have a change of circumstance in their own home are able to get to somewhere else safely.

Of course, those opposite didn't support the Housing Australia Future Fund, which was to invest in all of these things. We're going to keep investing in the homes that Australians need. We're going to keep investing in the housing market, and we're going to allow more Australians to own their own home—unlike those opposite, who just come in here and play politics.

Zoe McKenzie (Flinders, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.

Sitting suspended from 13 : 29 to 16:00