Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome this resolution before the Senate today moved by Senator Bartlett. I know he has raised it to get some genuine debate about what is a very important issue and one that is facing more and more Australians. I am sure he is disappointed, as I am, that when the government members speak to this motion the first thing they do is simply absolve themselves of any responsibility and blame the states.

We heard Senator Bernardi welcome this debate in the Senate. He told us how he has a great interest in it and that it is something he has spoken about. He then went on to blame the states and went on with a rant about the ALP, unions and everything else except the issue that we are supposed to be debating. He then had the gall to actually say it was our responsibility—the federal parliamentary Labor Party’s responsibility. I find that rather strange, given that Senator Bernardi should know as well as anyone else that we have been in opposition for 10 years and it is actually the government’s obligation to take a proactive role in this issue. They do not seem to have the capacity to even address that issue. They simply blame the states because it is convenient not to address the issue if you have someone else to constantly blame. Senator Ronaldson’s contribution, while it had a little bit more substance than Senator Bernardi’s, actually went to some of the issues, but, again, the focus was that it was everyone else’s problem but the federal government’s.

I happen to think there is no simple solution and that it requires a complex solution involving all levels of government. I think there is a more proactive role that the states could play with proper federal leadership. It goes to issues of Commonwealth-state funding and where money comes from for infrastructure development and planning issues. There are three levels of government that need to be engaged in that. I am disappointed that government senators have been so dismissive of this instead of engaging in a constructive debate about what we as a federal parliament can do and what the government should be considering to address what is a very important issue for more and more Australians every day.

The need for safe and secure housing is one of the most basic needs of humanity. It is a benchmark of how well a society is performing and looking after its citizens. I was reminded of the importance of this issue with the launch of the new campaign from the Australians for Affordable Housing coalition, a campaign which aims to tackle our current housing crisis. I applaud the work done by the Australians for Affordable Housing coalition, as housing often does not get the attention that other issues in our community do, despite the importance of it in our day-to-day lives. I guess that has been demonstrated quite clearly here today, with the government senators demonstrating the poverty of their position in respect of engaging in this very import debate.

In my own state of Victoria, housing issues are now becoming acute for people living in population centres who do not have the luxury of large incomes. When this is combined with a lack of transport, it means that some in our community are being excluded from a place to live. In Melbourne in particular there have been many community advocates who have worked long and hard to ensure that there is action on housing affordability, and of course I urge them to continue. We should not let this issue fade from the public view.

Many of these individuals and groups are now involved in the Australians for Affordable Housing coalition, and I want to reassure them that Labor welcomes and endorses their campaign. We too share the belief that housing should be affordable for all in our community. This issue is not solely a problem in Victoria; it is nationwide. Across Australia, people who are crucial to our community—students, carers, teachers, police, nurses, electricians, truck drivers, those looking for work—are all discovering that an affordable place to live is getting harder to find, and for some it is impossible. We constantly hear of how wonderful the resource boom is—that it means jobs and wealth. But we do not hear about the people such as hospitality and childcare workers in those communities who suddenly find house prices rising out of their reach. If they are renting they find they have to move out of town, and in some places like Queensland and Western Australia—the centres of the resources boom—they have to move to the next town altogether.

In our larger cities, as more people have realised, the inner city suburbs offer housing near employment and good public transport, schools, hospitals, libraries and other public assets, and housing in these areas has become unaffordable for anyone who does not have a large income or is not in a double-income family. Traditional working-class suburbs, which saw a large cross-section of ordinary workers, students, families and the elderly, are now losing their communities as people are forced out by rising rentals and house prices. Carlton, Collingwood, Fitzroy, North Melbourne; these are all suburbs where you would be lucky to find any workers on low incomes or their families. Aged-care facilities have sold up and moved out. Housing prices are often over a million dollars, and rent prices are now astronomical. Rental inspections may attract up to 100 people, and, to determine who they will rent a property to, some unscrupulous landlords and real estate agents will have an unofficial auction to see who will pay the highest rent. If it was not for public housing in these inner city suburbs, great numbers of our most essential workers, students and a large cross-section of our community would be forced to pull up stumps and look for cheaper accommodation.

The problem of housing affordability is a crisis in some local areas and is a real problem across the nation. It is not only some local communities that have borne the brunt of the lack of housing affordability; many Australians across the nation are feeling the pinch as mortgage repayments and rent chew up greater proportions of their income than ever before. The Australians for Affordable Housing coalition pointed out yesterday that rents have been rising nationally more than twice as fast as inflation. This is not just hurting families looking for a place to live; it is being felt by low-to middle-income earners, first home buyers and single people who are struggling to find and keep affordable housing. As the Australians for Affordable Housing coalition also pointed out, families buying their first home now need a six-figure income just to pay the mortgage on a medium priced home in most capital cities.

Far from delivering greater affordability and the low interest rates that they promised, federal ministers continue to duck questions about housing affordability. It is a debate that needs to be had, and it is a debate that needs to engage all levels of government. It must be remembered that eight interest rate rises on Peter Costello’s watch have added almost $130,000 over the life of a mortgage on a medium priced Melbourne home.

The one positive to come out of the acute local housing crisis has been the willingness of local and state governments to try to tackle the problem. More affordable housing has been built, redevelopments have taken place in conjunction with the private sector and innovative policy responses have been produced. This has been done by state and local governments by themselves, while the federal government continues to simply blame them for the worsening situation. If the federal government took the view to engage and cooperate more with state and local governments, more could be done—and more needs to be done.

There seems to be an ‘all blame and no responsibility’ attitude from this government when something goes wrong. Over on this side of the chamber we are all about ending the blame game, and when it comes to housing affordability that is exactly what we intend to do. There is a great responsibility for the federal government in housing affordability. It has a direct role through funding Commonwealth-state housing agreements, it has a direct role in creating fair taxation and welfare arrangements such as rental assistance and it has a crucial role in the infrastructure needs of our communities: in transport, communications and urban development. There is a greater need for Commonwealth involvement, and simply blaming the states, blaming other tiers of government—and, in fact, blaming the opposition—for the housing affordability crisis is no responsible way for a government to tackle a problem that is being felt more and more acutely by more and more Australians every day, every week and every year.

Labor have repeatedly said that, while there is no simple answer to housing stress, there are a number of things that could and should be done that would ease the crisis. We have committed to assessing all constructive ideas for tackling the lack of affordable housing, and we will start by negotiating a national affordable housing agreement amongst the three tiers of government. We have also committed to looking at shared equity models involving the federal government. We will look at protecting consumers from predatory lenders and we will actively seek ways to leverage private investment in low-income housing. In government, Labor will move to fill the current policy void with a realistic and innovative approach designed to ensure that all Australians have secure, prosperous and healthy places to live. (Time expired)