Annette Hurley (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Minchin. Is the minister aware of comments by the Prime Minister, in 1995, that ‘owning a home is part and parcel of the Australian dream. It ought to be part and parcel of the dream within the reach of battling Australians’? Is the minister aware that families now need to earn $120,000 a year just to meet repayments on a median priced mortgage, compared to $46,000 in 1996? Doesn’t the average home now cost the equivalent of seven years wages, compared to just four years wages in 1996? Don’t average mortgage repayments now use up one dollar in every three earned by working families, compared to one dollar in six in 1996? Isn’t it clear that home ownership is now nothing but a dream for many working families that the Prime Minister claims to represent?