Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Help to Buy (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2023. Every time I rise in this place to speak about the housing and rental crisis, things have inevitably become much worse. Things have become much worse because this Labor government has failed to take the steps needed to make real change. Since the introduction of this legislation, the Greens have been clear that we are willing to negotiate with the government so we can actually help renters and first home buyers. Our door has been open, but Labor has not responded. It has not responded at all to the asks we have put on the table—the asks that will help tackle the housing crisis for millions of struggling people and families across this country.

Labor has not budged at all. There has been nothing on rent caps, no proposal on negative gearing or the capital gains tax discount, no money for a public developer—nothing. Labor's housing minister might have changed, but nothing in their policy or their position has changed in being able to tackle the housing crisis. Now, here we are, with Labor throwing a tantrum and stubbornly trying to ram through this bill, which will drive up house prices, while still refusing to scrap the massive tax handouts to wealthy property investors that are denying millions of renters the chance to buy a home.

People across the country are crying out for help as they battle with the increasing cost-of-living crisis and soaring rents and house prices. Millions of renters are struggling to keep their heads just above water, and the best Labor is willing to do is establish a housing lottery through which 0.2 per cent of renters might get access to this scheme every year. But it will drive up prices for the other 99.8 per cent of renters. The evidence to the Senate inquiry into this bill was pretty clear that the scheme will benefit a tiny minority and will have the ultimate effect of driving up house prices. In the context of already soaring house prices, mortgages and rents, to say that this is not good enough would be an understatement.

The Help to Buy scheme offers up to 10,000 people—10,000 people only—the chance to have the government purchase 30 to 40 per cent of a private home. People will be eligible only if they earn below $120,000 for a couple and below $90,000 for an individual and only if the house price is below a certain amount, depending on the city or the region. In Sydney, the house price limit in this bill is $950,000. The median house price in Sydney is over $1.6 million. There are 5.5 million adult renters in Australia and, even at capacity—and we know that schemes like this are nowhere near their capacity in New South Wales, for instance—a maximum of 10,000 renters out of 5.5 million will be able to use this scheme.

It is not just the Greens that are concerned about this bill. During the Senate inquiry, Mr Matt Grudnoff, senior economist at the Australia Institute, said this:

The Help to Buy scheme, like many previous housing affordability schemes from both major parties, is a policy to boost the financial position of a particular group , usually first home buyers. The problem with these kinds of policies is that they simply increase demand for housing, and this increases the price of housing. The result is that it makes housing less affordable.

Dr John Quiggin, professor of economics at the University of Queensland, said this:

These schemes have been around forever,but the money is eventually capitalised into house prices, so the beneficiaries gain at the expense of everyone else.

Ms Maiy Azize, spokesperson for Everybody's Home, told us this:

Scrapping negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts are not just 'nice to haves' or levers that we could pull; it is absolutely critical if we want to make housing affordable in Australia.

For over two years now, we have heard Labor say, 'Give us time; give us time,' and we're nearing the end of a full term of government, and people are really frustrated, angry and sick and tired of Labor's hollow words and false promises as they suffer and struggle every single day. Housing is a human right. In a wealthy country, it is inconceivable that so many people are experiencing homelessness and housing stress. They are one rent payment away from losing their home. They are struggling to keep a roof over their head. All this is happening while corporations are making billions of dollars in profit. The government has a duty to provide accessible, affordable, good quality housing for everyone.

Of those experiencing homelessness, 20 per cent are First Nations people, despite First Nations people making up only 3.8 per cent of the population. It should be a source of national shame that so many First Nations people are experiencing homelessness on their own land. As usual, it is those at the intersections of marginalisation and discrimination who are hit the hardest. We have a housing system that screws over millions of people while banks and property developers make an absolute killing off the misery of ordinary people. The Greens are fighting for a two-year freeze on rent increases. We are fighting for the phasing-out of unfair tax concessions, like negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount. And we want to invest that money into building high-quality, government built, accessible, affordable homes, sold and rented at prices people can actually afford.

This is desperately needed, because here is the situation. Rents have skyrocketed 53 per cent since 2020. Housing prices have increased 46 per cent since 2020. The shortage of public and social housing is projected to increase under this government from an already unacceptable high of 750,000 homes. Over the next 10 years, the federal government will give $176 billion in tax handouts to property investors, through negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount. By comparison, this Labor government has committed to zero dollars of ongoing direct spending on public housing and just $500 million a year for social housing through the Housing Australia Future Fund. That is the dire situation. I will be moving a second reading amendment to that effect later on.

According to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data, rents—like I said before—have increased at nearly double the rate of wages over the last year alone, putting millions of renters under significant and massive financial stress and making it impossible for many to ever save enough to buy a home in the first place. You can talk to any young person these days, and they will tell you they have completely given up their dream of owning their first home. Despite increased national wealth in GDP, homeownership rates across Australia are falling. In particular, they are falling faster amongst younger and poorer people. The housing crisis is the result of the direct failure of public policy choices. These choices have been made by successive Liberal and Labor governments. People's lives are being destroyed because of insecure housing.

The government are aware of the effects that experiencing the housing and rental crisis has on every possible measure of an individual's participation in our community, and yet they have put a scheme before parliament that equates to no more than tinkering around the edges, and I'm being generous here when I say 'tinkering around the edges'. The government has the opportunity, has had the opportunity and still has the opportunity to work with the Greens right now to start to address these systemic issues that are forcing more and more people into housing stress and homelessness.

Schemes like Help to Buy allow people to pay more for housing than they otherwise would be able to afford. As a result of these demand-side support measures—and there are other examples of these types of schemes, including the first home buyers grant and the coalition's HomeBuilder program—overall homeownership rates are lowered, as more people are priced out of housing. So, while the Help to Buy scheme might help the 0.2 per cent of people lucky to get access to the scheme, for the other 99.8 per cent it will make things worse by driving up house prices even further. Even though this is a small scheme, anything that pushes house prices up in the middle of a housing affordability crisis is a step in the wrong direction, and this is a decision that the Greens are not prepared to take.

When I'm out doorknocking on weekends, the stress that people are feeling, the betrayal that people are feeling, is palpable. They know that Labor's 'no-one left behind' mantra before the election was just an empty slogan. They know that the bad choices that Labor is making are leaving more and more people behind. And, disgracefully, Labor has now joined the Liberals in using migrants and international students as scapegoats, blaming them for their own policy failures in not addressing the housing and rental crisis. There is not much lower to sink here, and it is despicable dog whistling. Migrants and international students are feeling really attacked at this point in time, and that is a shame, and both Labor and the Liberals should be ashamed of continuing this rhetoric and this dog whistling—more and more—to win some kind of political game that they are playing, using these people as pawns in that game.

Labor should stop playing political games, because there are no winners here. There are no winners here, but there will be many losers. It is the people struggling to put food on the table. It is the people struggling to pay for the dentist. It is the people struggling under an ever-increasing HECS debt. It is the people struggling to pay the rent. These will be the losers, and there are millions and millions of them in this country.

We have up to eight months until the next federal election, so there is still time for this government to come to the table to negotiate with the Greens and to make a real, genuine difference to address the housing crisis. Labor really needs to wake up. The housing and rental crisis is breaking people, and you know that. But all you're doing is driving up rents and house prices. We can and we must do better. I move:

At the end of the motion, add ", but the Senate:

(a) notes that:

(i) rents have skyrocketed 53% since 2020,

(ii) housing prices have increased 46% since 2020,

(iii) the shortage of public and social housing is projected to increase under this Government from an already unacceptable high of 750,000 homes,

(iv) over the next 10 years the Federal Government will give $176 billion in tax handouts to property investors through negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount, and

(v) by comparison, this Labor Government has committed to zero dollars of new ongoing direct spending on public housing, and just $500 million a year for social housing through the Housing Australia Future Fund; and

(b) calls on the Government to:

(i) implement a phase-out of negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount,

(ii) coordinate through National Cabinet the introduction of a 2-year freeze on rent increases, followed by an ongoing cap on rent increases,

(iii) establish a government developer to directly build hundreds of thousands of good quality homes over the next five years to be rented and sold for low cost, and

(iv) invest in a mass build of public housing to clear the waitlists".