Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I hope you are listening over there, and I will say it one more time: for 11 long years you presided over the greatest skills shortage in the history of this country—something to be very proud of, I am sure, Senator Bushby, who is from Tasmania. I am sorry, I forgot Senator Kroger, from Victoria, who also sat there and witnessed the greatest skills shortage in Australia’s history. I am sorry for forgetting Senator Kroger—and she should be even more ashamed, coming from a manufacturing state such as that great state of Victoria. All the Howard government did was to embark on a blame game, blaming the states and territories for the problem.

The Howard government also presided over the emergence of a critical shortage of affordable housing. In an address at the 2002 annual convention of the Housing Institute of Australia, the former Prime Minister, John Howard, had this to say:

I am committed to preserving and expanding the levels of home ownership, which are essential to social cohesion and stability.

And then what happened? Mr Acting Deputy President, I will tell you what happened. From almost the moment Mr Howard uttered those words, housing affordability went into freefall. By early 2007 the Housing Institute of Australia was estimating that more than half a million households were experiencing housing stress. Back in March 2002 the median first-home price was approximately $220,000 and average monthly repayments were approximately 21 per cent of average disposable household income. By September 2007 the median first-home price had increased to approximately $430,000. That is an increase of approximately 95 per cent. Over the same period the average annual household disposable income had increased by only approximately 25 per cent. You do not have to be Einstein to work out that over the period of the Howard government the cost of buying a first home had become a financial nightmare for hundreds of thousands of Australians. The result of 11 years of neglect by the Howard government is that Australia is now in the grip of a housing shortage that will, unfortunately, take years to resolve. All these problems could largely have been avoided if the federal government at that time had put its mind to the job required of it.