Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Banking and Financial Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Minchin, the Minister representing the Treasurer. Is the minister aware of new mortgage repossession figures from the Supreme Court of New South Wales for 2006 which show that mortgage repossession actions have skyrocketed by 75 per cent since 2004? Haven’t the four back-to-back interest rate hikes that have occurred since 2004 been direct contributors to this massive increase? What other explanation does the minister have for these figures, which had such a devastating impact on 100 families in New South Wales every week last year? What is the government going to do to help the thousands of Australian families who are at risk of having to walk out of their homes because of the five years of interest rate hikes under this government?

Government Senators:

Government senators interjecting—

Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As my colleagues are indicating, the Labor Party has a hide to ask questions about interest rates, given its record on this subject. I do not need to remind the Senate that under Labor home mortgage interest rates averaged some 12.75 per cent; under us they are averaging 7.18 per cent. In relation to the very specific question that Senator Sherry has asked, I am advised that recent data on applications for repossession made to the Supreme Court of New South Wales show that 5,368 cases were lodged on the New South Wales repossession list during 2006—10 per cent more than were lodged during 2005. As an estimated share of all New South Wales households with a mortgage, cases lodged on the New South Wales repossession list increased from 0.3 per cent in 2004 to 0.56 per cent in 2006.

As is always the case with Labor questions and Labor assertions, one needs to keep some perspective on these matters. Clearly, there has been some increase in the number of applications for repossession, as Senator Sherry noted, but in terms of proportions we are talking about an increase from 0.3 per cent to 0.56 per cent. So the overwhelming majority of mortgage holders in New South Wales continued to be able to service and handle their mortgages.

I would also point out to Senator Sherry that the phenomenon he points to seems to be largely concentrated in the state of New South Wales. I wonder why that would be! New South Wales is, by far, the worst managed state in the federation, it has the worst performing economy in the federation and it has had the most hopeless state Labor government that this country has probably ever seen. That is what is causing the problem for New South Wales mortgage holders. The management of the New South Wales economy is appalling. To some extent that will have had some impact on the situation with repossessions which, as I say, must be kept in perspective, because we are talking about an increase from 0.3 per cent to 0.56 per cent.

Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Banking and Financial Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Given the minister’s interest in the former Labor government, can he confirm that the current level of mortgage repossessions is now two-thirds higher than it ever was under Labor? Don’t the four back-to-back interest rate increases since 2004 represent a fundamental breach of the promise at the election that the Prime Minister, Mr Howard, made that a Liberal government would keep interest rates low?

Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As Senator Sherry well knows, our pledge to the Australian people, which remains absolutely true, is that interest rates under a coalition government will always be lower than they were under a Labor government or would be under a Labor government. We profoundly believe that to be true. The Australian people believe that to be true and they have the evidence of the performance of the Hawke-Keating government to prove that demonstrable fact when their policies drove interest rates through the roof and drove thousands upon thousands of Australians out of their homes.