Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Mental Health) Share this | Hansard source

I am also pleased to rise to speak to this matter of public importance about the Abbott government's failure to tackle superannuation inequality and housing affordability. I will focus my remarks this afternoon on the issue of housing affordability and my colleague Senator Ketter will focus on the superannuation question.

The provision of affordable housing is a complex policy matter with many factors that determine affordability that must be considered in the policy response. According to the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, AHURI, in order to determine housing affordability stress, you need to look at local housing and labour markets as well as larger economic, environmental and social issues. AHURI has carried out some very important research in this space. I had the opportunity to hear from a number of experts last week at AHURI's event entitled: Housing the secret to urban productivity growth.

It is important to understand the links between housing and productivity growth because housing can impact economies in very different but very real ways. High housing costs can push people out of communities who otherwise might have provided other valuable resources to that community, most importantly, their labour and their skills. Similarly, the differential between regional housing prices can inhibit labour mobility—that is, people are restricted from moving to areas of workforce need if they cannot afford to move there because of high housing costs.

AHURI's researchers have done some internationally recognised research looking at whether the supply of affordable housing for low-income earners in job-rich cities is impacting on the businesses in these city centres and, indeed, the overall productivity of the city. It is extremely interesting work, one of the many projects that people are working on.

Understanding the characteristics of Australia's housing affordability problem is critical to the future of our economy. If we do not attend to it we will be faced with a generation of people unable to enter the housing market. We do not want a generation of people pushed to the suburban fringe as their only option, or to fragile tenancies like boarding houses and long-term caravan parks. This will simply widen the already unsustainable inequalities. We must develop strategies to increase housing affordability and availability for people with low and middle incomes in a way that is sustainable into the future, meaning that we have to address both the supply-side and the demand-side issues.

In government, Labor had a proud record of helping to deliver affordable housing for Australians and their families. We invested a record $26 billion in a broad-ranging and innovative affordable housing agenda. It was the single largest investment in housing affordability in Australian history. We helped low-income earners by providing rent assistance to around 1.2 million individuals and families, reducing the proportion of recipients in housing stress from 68.2 per cent to 40.8 per cent. This is still a job not done, but it is a big reduction.

Labor contributed directly to the construction of one in every 20 new homes. And then there was the $4.5 billion National Rental Affordability Scheme, to add more than 37,000 new, affordable rental homes across Australia. The Residential Development Council of Australia has lauded our NRAS as:

… an important driver in increasing housing supply across Australia.

And it warned the Abbott government that getting rid of the NRAS would leave the government out of the housing affordability and supply issue:

… a national issue that needs a national response.

But the Abbott government went ahead and scrapped the NRAS program anyway.

On top of that, they delivered a $44 million cut to homelessness services in their first budget. They axed the Housing Help for Seniors program, which was to deliver support for pensioners over the aged pension age who right-sized their homes. They scrapped the first home owner saver accounts, they abolished the Prime Minister's Council on Homelessness and disbanded the COAG Select Council on Housing and Homelessness, and the advisory group that advised that council. Then they withdrew the Commonwealth's role from the community housing sector's National Regulatory Council. It is quite a quite shameful record.

Early in the piece, the Abbott government announced an internal review of all housing and homelessness programs for which, in the end, no terms of reference, reporting dates or details were ever released. It was to report by the end of last year. That review never went ahead, appearing to have been scrapped in favour of a discussion on housing and homelessness as part of the Reform of Federation white paper. We do hope that this process will lead to some proper housing policy from the Abbott government because, until now, some 18 months in, we have seen nothing in terms of public policy around housing, homelessness and affordability.

I am not confident, though, that this will happen, and my lack of confidence is shared. National Shelter's Adrian Pisarski attended a consultation in Canberra recently on the Reform of Federation white paper. He came away concerned that the outcome is 'a foregone conclusion' and that there is limited focus on understanding the problem and determining how to resolve it.

Mr Pisarski, writing for Pro Bono Australia, suggested that pushing a review of housing and homelessness into the Reform of Federation white paper is more about the Abbott government abrogating their role in housing and passing it off to the states and territories. To be blunt, it is about removing any pressures on the budget bottom line.

He rightly identifies that any deliberations around housing affordability must include considerations of the Commonwealth's taxing powers. He points to the fact that:

… this must now be considered by another major review of taxation.

So, two reviews. It is my view that the referral of all decision making to the two white paper processes will mean that by the end of this government's term there will have been no decisions made about future policy to support more affordable housing in our country.

The philosophical position of Liberal governments, which is not new, to withdraw from the leadership role that a Commonwealth government can have and to avoid the debate about supply and housing affordability is just not tenable. Hiding behind section 51 of the Constitution is, in my view, a smokescreen. In his article, Mr Pisarski rightly says:

… we have now had the Commonwealth involved for 70 out of 114 years.

According to the role that the Commonwealth took in providing housing for returned soldiers after World War II.

The Abbott government is putting the bottom line above the lives and welfare of Australians, particularly those Australians who are the most vulnerable or marginalised in our society. The Abbott government has no plan to address the issue of housing affordability because they do not see it as their responsibility. Mr Abbott said today that his second budget will be frugal but responsible, because it is it a budget in repair.

This will give no heart to people who need help in keeping a roof over their heads, nor to the organisations that support them. He cut funding for them too. Just days before last Christmas, he took away funding from the Community Housing Federation of Australia, from Homelessness Australia and from National Shelter. He shut down the voices of people who otherwise do not have a voice, and I am fearful that this next budget will be as unkind as the first.

Mr Abbott and his government have attempted to fool the Australian people, but the Australian people are not foolish. This government cannot be trusted on anything when it comes to housing policy and policy for the homeless in our country.