Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Evans, the Minister representing the Minister for Housing. The minister earlier in question time clearly demonstrated he is aware of the enormous housing affordability crisis in Australia, as well as the serious neglect of this key issue by the previous government. The minister also outlined the policy announcements his government has made to date to try to alleviate the problem. Does the minister believe that the government’s policy announcements to date are sufficient to deal with the housing affordability crisis, or does the minister agree with Ann Harding, the author of the NATSEM report, that much more needs to be done? What further plans, if any, does the government have to tackle this serious problem? In particular, will the government agree to consider the recommendations put forward by the Productivity Commission in 2004, long ignored by the previous government, to examine the impact on housing affordability of the taxation system, including the various deductions, discounts, incentives and grants that impact on housing and rental prices?

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Bartlett for the question. I thought I made it clear earlier. Certainly the government does not believe there is not a lot more that needs to be done—there clearly is. The pressure on housing affordability, as revealed in the NATSEM report today, is at record levels. People are finding it very difficult to get into their first home and finding it very difficult to meet their mortgage repayments, and that is putting enormous stress on families. It is not only economic stress but also stress in terms of home life, as people try and work extra time, juggle commitments and make savings in their budgets. The long run of interest rate increases has put enormous pressure on families and their capacity to enter and maintain a home.

I think it is a situation that requires a range of policy measures. The first among them, of course, is the fight against inflation. That is why the government has made its priority trying to bring inflation down. The current underlying rate of inflation we inherited from the Howard government will put enormous pressure on interest rates and the ability of Australians to own their own homes. So we have made fighting inflation the priority. The five-point plan the Prime Minister has enunciated is about trying to tackle that inflation problem head-on, and that should ease the pressure in the housing market.

But as I indicated before, Senator Bartlett, we have announced the first homeowner savers accounts, which are designed to assist young people saving for their own home. It is, if you like, an ability to reward their savings and add to their deposit. That does not start till 1 July but hopefully it will have an impact in terms of allowing young Australians to save and build their deposit so they can get into home ownership. That is going to be a commitment of $850 million over four years and it is a very important initiative. As you know, we have also got the new Housing Affordability Fund, which will invest $30 million to streamline local government development assessments as part of a broader $500 million plan to cut infrastructure costs and reduce planning delays. That is designed to get more land and more homes available on the market.

We are establishing a National Rental Affordability Scheme, which is encouraging private sector investment in affordable rental properties. As Senator Bartlett and senators would be well aware, housing pressure is impacting not only on those seeking to buy a home but also on those in the rental market as rents have increased enormously. A lot of people are finding it difficult to maintain their current premises because of the increase in rents. I know that in my own area in Perth a number of elderly people in my suburb have been forced to leave the suburb because they can no longer afford the rents as the pressure goes on, so they are actually having to move away from community and family because of the pressure. So we are very interested in lending help in terms of affordability for rental properties. We think by harnessing some of that private sector investment in the rental affordability scheme we can make a contribution there.

As I mentioned earlier, there are policies to ensure land release of surplus Commonwealth land to assist with making more land available, and we are also in the process of establishing a national housing supply council to forecast future need—to try and analyse what housing demand will be and how we manage that demand so that we are not as caught by peaks and troughs as we seem to be in the housing market.

All of these things are measures the government has introduced. We have got a full-time housing minister in Ms Plibersek working on housing because we realise how central it is and how important the housing affordability crisis is to families and their way of life in Australia. (Time expired)

Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I refer the minister back to the key part of the initial question. Accepting all that he said, does the minister agree and acknowledge that the many distortions built into our taxation system do have an impact on housing affordability, as was suggested by the Productivity Commission in their inquiry more than three years ago? Is the government at least going to consider the recommendations of the Productivity Commission, which were ignored by the previous government, and examine the impact of our taxation system and the role it plays in exacerbating the housing affordability crisis?

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was going to get there but I did not quite get there, Senator Bartlett. I am not aware that there is any active consideration of the taxation arrangements canvassed in the Productivity Commission report, so I think the answer is no, but I will seek further advice and if anything is happening in terms of reviewing those recommendations I will get back to you. But my sense of it is that that is not part of any active policy consideration and we are focused on the measures I have outlined. If more measures are required, more action is required from the federal government, we will be tackling it to try and ensure that Australians have an opportunity to own their own home.