Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Multicultural Engagement) Share this | Hansard source

Talking about education, I note that the Greens are proposing an amendment to the Help to Buy Bill 2023 which once again raises the issue of rent controls. How many times do we have to come to this place and hear this nonsense from the Greens—this economic nonsense that rent controls, rent caps or rent ceilings are a solution to Australia's housing problem?

In the past I've quoted from my book Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell. Rent controls didn't work in Australia after World War II in Melbourne. They didn't work in Egypt. They didn't work in the United States. They haven't worked in England and Wales. They haven't worked in Canada or the United States. Nowhere where they've been tried have rent controls actually worked. They always make the problem worse.

Now I want to refer to another study on rent controls in Argentina, and I thank my friend Martin for forwarding this to me. Again, these mechanisms have been tried. What happened in Argentina in 2019 when they introduced rent controls—the rent controls the extreme Greens want Australia to have? Forty-five per cent of landlords stopped renting. Average rents soared. They went up from 18,000 pesos a month at the end of 2019 to 334,000 pesos today. Landlords stopped paying for maintenance on their properties. What happened when rent controls were removed in Argentina just recently? It led to an increase in supply of approximately 45 per cent, and rents actually fell between 20 and 30 per cent following the removal of rent control.

Rent controls don't work. The Greens keep banging this rent-control drum. It would be a disaster for Australia.