Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Treasurer, Senator Gallagher. The 1937 banking royal commission recommended that the central bank should always control the volume of credit in the system. This wise policy saw housing ownership reach record levels after the war, until the mid-1980s, when Paul Keating recklessly reversed this policy by lifting foreign capital controls. This saw foreign debt held by the four major banks increase from $8 billion to almost $800 billion by 2008. This doubled the price of houses relative to income, lifted household debt to record levels, forced households to put two parents back into the workforce and lowered Australia's education rankings. Will the Labor government reverse this reckless neoliberal policy and use capital controls to limit household debt to sustainable levels and increase housing affordability so that future Australian generations can afford to buy a home?