Trish Crossin (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of the answers given to us today by Senator Scullion in relation to housing affordability. This is an absolute policy-free zone when it comes to the Howard government. If it is not a policy-free zone then it is certainly a policy area where there are many different ideas and messages coming from the government members of parliament. One only has to look at the papers today to see that there are almost as many different policies on housing affordability as there are government MPs in this place.

According to newspaper reports today, policy No. 1 has come from Mrs Mirabella and Senator Ferguson, who are suggesting that first home buyers should receive the benefits of negative gearing on the home they live in. Policy No. 2 came from Mrs Danna Vale, suggesting that the Commonwealth should release land and build homes with the private sector. But wait, there is more policy. Policy No. 3 comes from Mr Pat Farmer, who has suggested that the government should match dollar for dollar, up to $50,000, the money first home owners save for their deposit. Last but not least, there is policy No. 4, which is from all the other MPs in this government, suggesting that the first home owners grant should be raised.

Coalition backbenchers are throwing policies around like they are going out of fashion. That is because they are desperate to have one clear, consistent policy from this government when it comes to housing affordability. But the Prime Minister and his cabinet ministers have been unable to lock in a concrete policy on how they want to tackle this issue. They are caught in a bind. There have been nine consecutive interest rate rises under this government and five interest rate rises since the last election. The pressure on this government to come up with a policy and plan for the future, an idea about how they will tackle this if they are re-elected, has caught them out again with a lack of policy on housing. We know that it is embarrassing for their backbenchers, who reiterate three or four different policies in any one day just to try to get this government to lay down a plan for the future and a plan for people who want to buy their own homes. Mr Peter Lindsay only last week blamed young people themselves for being priced out of the housing market.

After 11 long years in government and with a housing market that has frozen out most young people and average wage earners, it is astonishing that this government is in such disarray when it comes to having a plan or policy for housing affordability. At this point in time, statistics show us that homeownership amongst young people has dropped during this government’s term in office. Last week, the Real Estate Institute of Australia published figures showing that only 16.7 per cent of homes financed in June were purchased by first home buyers, compared with the historic average of 20 per cent. So the number of young people buying and purchasing their own homes is dropping. This government refuses to accept those statistics or to act on them.

According to Mortgage Choice’s latest survey, 28 per cent of Australians will be aged 41 years or older when they buy their first home. Even sadder, hundreds of thousands of Australians will be simply unable to ever afford to buy a home without any action by this federal government. In fact, back on 18 July the Australian stated that this is clearly all a bit beyond the Prime Minister. And clearly it is a bit beyond this Prime Minister and this government to come up with a plan to tackle housing affordability.

We know that data released this year also shows that purchasing a home in a capital city has become even tougher, with the Australian dream of homeownership slipping further out of the reach of families. This is a government that has no plan for housing affordability and no blueprint for what it will do in the future. It languishes in the past and pretends it has a track record on this when the statistics show us otherwise. After nine consecutive interest rate rises and five interest rate rises since the last election, this is a policy-free zone— (Time expired)