Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for COAG) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and Research (Senator Evans) to a question without notice asked by Senator Payne today relating to housing.

The words of the minister this afternoon in relation to housing seem to me to be more than slightly delusional, because we have a housing shortage which continues without abate to grow out of control. We learnt only today, from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, that dwelling commencements fell again. They fell this time by 12.6 per cent in seasonally adjusted terms in the March 2012 quarter, which is actually a drop of 24.5 per cent in the past year—a drop of almost 25 per cent in dwelling commencements. If that is not a serious issue for concern in relation to housing in this country, then in fact nothing is.

Those on the other side can talk all they like about previous investments in housing, but there is a complete lack of priority applied in this area currently and certainly they outlined no vision to improve supply and affordability in the recent budget. That is even so under existing programs, so let us look at the National Rental Affordability Scheme, known as NRAS. Just 16 homes out of an allocation of 1,186 homes in the Northern Territory will have been completed before the 1 July 2012 deadline—16 out of 1,186! That occurred in the third round of the scheme after no dwellings at all were allocated in rounds 1 and 2.

What the National Housing Supply Council report shows is that the Northern Territory already has the largest estimated shortfall relative to the number of households, at 15 per cent—and the latest failure in NRAS will only increase that shortage. The situation is not much better in New South Wales, nor in Queensland. As I outlined, in trying to get answers from the minister in my question, the carbon tax is only going to increase building costs and provide a disincentive to build a new home at a time when we can least afford it. As my colleague Senator Cash said during question time, the great Australian dream is fading rapidly into the distance under this government and particularly in relation to housing supply. If you are a resident of Western Sydney and you are looking at a $208 a year increase in your electricity bill from 1 July, why would you be looking at building a new home? You would not be.