Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Finance and Administration (Senator Minchin) to a question without notice asked by Senator Bartlett today relating to housing affordability.

We saw, in question time today, the government, including Senator Minchin, making a lot of noise about and showing a lot of pride in the economic indicators that have come out in recent times—the low unemployment rate, the low inflation rate and the high GDP growth. I can understand and do not begrudge the government doing that and attempting to take responsibility for those good economic indicators. But when the minister was questioned about another economic indicator, Australia’s housing affordability index, which shows that housing affordability in Australia is at record lows, suddenly it was nothing to do with the federal government; suddenly it was all the fault of the states.

This is a key economic indicator and, frankly, if we cannot fix it up, it will override all of the gains we get through lower unemployment and through keeping inflation under control. It is not keeping the cost of housing under control, whatever your inflation rate says. And that is not just for people wanting to buy housing, as the minister suggested in his answer; it is also for those in the private rental market as well.

This housing affordability crisis has occurred, has developed and got to the worst stage on record in Australia under the watch of the federal coalition government. And it is simply not good enough to say: ‘Oh well, we are doing everything we can, and everything that is going wrong is all the states’ fault.’ It is just not good enough. I must have asked Senator Minchin this question at least four times now over the years. That is how long this crisis has been going, and it has got worse over that time. Yet, every time, that is all he has had to say in response—that everything that is wrong is in the lap of the states. There are things that the states should do about it and, indeed, some of them are doing them, as are local councils. But this crisis has to have a national response.

Yet, once again, we had the Leader of the Government in the Senate refusing to consider the simple approach of tackling this national crisis in housing affordability with a national strategy. There is no national housing strategy or agenda or policy from this federal government, at a time when we have the worst housing affordability crisis on record. That, to me, is a disgrace, and it is just not good enough for the minister to say that he has sympathy for people. I am sure he has sympathy for people who are struggling with the housing affordability crisis. But that is not good enough.

You cannot wrap yourself in glory and self-praise for the good economic indicators and then refuse to take responsibility for one of the worst and one of the most serious economic indicators in the country. As I said, low unemployment is great; low inflation is great; wages growth is great. But if none of that keeps pace with something as fundamental as housing affordability then all of those gains are being outweighed by the losses in the housing affordability area.

It simply beggars belief that there is a refusal to act at national level on this issue. It is bad enough to just keep shifting the blame. That is what governments do all the time; I appreciate that. But to refuse to act, to refuse to adopt a national strategy, is simply ridiculous. And it is beyond belief that the minister could suggest that there is nothing extra the federal government can do about housing affordability issues. Yet that is basically the substance of the reply that Senator Minchin gave today—as it has been all the other times I have raised this issue and asked him pretty much the same question, year after year after year. The response has been the same.

The Housing Industry Association is responsible for putting together the housing affordability index, and it has called for a national summit on housing affordability to work together with all the industry, social, community housing and union groups, as well as state and local governments, and they have called for a national approach and national leadership on this issue, as have many other groups across the political spectrum. The Housing Industry Association is hardly a radical left-wing body; it is an industry association that has a lot of knowledge and expertise in this area. It is simply ridiculous that we are not getting action. The Democrats repeat our call for this to be made a national priority and for there to be action at a national level. It is something we would support and cooperate with. It does mean looking at all of the issues; it does mean a holistic response; it does mean showing some vision— (Time expired)

Question agreed to.