Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McKim has submitted a proposal under standing order 75 today which has been circulated and is shown on the Dynamic Red:

Pursuant to standing order 75, I give notice that today the Australian Greens propose to move "That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

We are in a rental crisis with more people experiencing rental stress and unable to afford a home. The Labor government must take action by stopping unlimited rental increases."

Is consideration of the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

With the concurrence of the Senate, the clerks will set the clocks in line with informal arrangements made by the whips.

Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

We are in a rental crisis with more people experiencing rental stress and unable to afford a home. The Labor government must take action by stopping unlimited rental increases.

As the motion states, we are in a rental crisis in Australia, and more and more people are experiencing rental stress and are unable to afford the basic human right of having a home to live in. This motion does call for the Labor government to take action by stopping unlimited rental increases. It is shameful that in this country renters in most places can face an unlimited number, an unlimited frequency and an unlimited scale of rent rises. In many cases, the number, the frequency and the scale of rent rises is enough to render people homeless.

Labor's rental crisis epitomises a broken social contract between the government and the people that it governs. Labor Housing Minister Julie Collins said the quiet thing out loud earlier this year when she said that Labor views houses as an investment and asset class in Australia. Well, I've got news for Ms Collins: houses are actually homes. Houses are homes, where people and their families build a place for themselves, buy a place for themselves or, in the case of about a third of the houses in Australia, rent a place for themselves to live. The broken social contract between this Labor government and its people represents an understanding that used to exist in Australia, where hard work, education and a reasonable job were keys to a fair crack at prosperity and a good life. This foundational belief, this foundational social contract, has been systematically dismantled by the Albanese government.

The plight of young Australians in particular—but not only young Australians—who rent today tells a stark story. That social contract—the one that represented an agreement, a contract that hard work, education and a reasonable job were the keys to a fair crack at a prosperous life—is broken, and no longer can it be said that hard work alone, that education alone, that a decent job alone is enough to have a good life in Australia. The new class division in this country is between people who own property and people who do not. That is the stark new class division that is emerging in this country—and it is stark and unforgiving. Those who are lucky enough—and I would suggest it's most people in this chamber, who own property—continue to prosper. Those who do not are condemned to the likelihood of a life of economic uncertainty.

ABS figures released today showed that wages grew by about 1.3 per cent. That is a small increase on inflation and that should be celebrated as real wage growth. But rents increased by 2.2 per cent over the same quarter. Rents are skyrocketing, and wages are not keeping up with skyrocketing rents. That is placing the dream of a home further and further out of reach for more and more people. Labor needs to act.

Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do have to agree with Senator McKim: we are in a rental crisis, a housing crisis, a cost-of-living crisis and an energy crisis. That, in my view, has been brought about by a very high immigration rate that is unsustainable. In the last reported quarter, the March quarter, we had 150,000 immigrants, which translates to 600,000 immigrants throughout the year, which is, interestingly enough, 200,000 more than what Labor forecast, or rather what Treasury—because they're the guys who actually run the country; overpaid muppets, but anyway—forecast. That is obviously going to increase demand.

The problem with price controls is that you will end up capping supply of new housing. What we've got is an inflation problem, and the cost of building is going up. Because the cost of building is going up, many builders are actually going broke and out of business, which is reducing the supply of new houses into the market. What we really need is for the RBA to get in touch with the real world and to actually use the levers available to them, not just qualitative easing, which in layman's terms is manipulating the price of money on the first Tuesday of every month. The problem with paper shuffling is, if you do too much of it for too long and you keep focused on models, you take your eye off the ball. The name of the game is to actually build things. True freedom is the child of affluence, and affluence comes from productivity. What we really need to do to fix this crisis is get people back on the tools and get them building, not just in housing but in other areas of the economy as well, such as dams, power stations, roads and factories.

There are two other levers I think the RBA have to look at, and I touched on this in a speech earlier this morning. One is quantitative easing. Governments have been brainwashed into thinking the only way that they can issue new capital in the system is by issuing bonds, but there is another form of capital, and that's called equity. Publicly listed corporations do this all the time: they go out and issue new capital. As a sovereign country, we can issue new capital as a means to increase supply.

What the RBA has done is lift interest rates—I've lost count—10 to 12 times in the last 18 months. That's had a devastating impact on demand, and it's had a devastating impact on supply. This is one of the things I get very annoyed with the RBA about, because they don't realise that increasing interest rates doesn't just dampen demand on the housing side but actually dampens supply on the housing side. It dampens supply on the small-business side. Small business, whether they're builders, bricklayers, fruit sellers, butchers or whatever, also borrow money in order to run their businesses.

It's alright for the big end of town: they can tap the equity markets, particularly the superannuation funds, because there's a lazy $3 trillion in cash sitting there that doesn't require work and is just managed by white-collar spivs in the ivory palaces of Sydney and Melbourne. So much for free markets, when 12 per cent of your income is taken from you and given to someone else you don't know! Actually, that's something we could do: we could make superannuation optional so that people can actually afford to buy their own homes as well.

The other thing I want to touch on is our macroprudential controls. In 1985 Paul Keating lifted all the capital controls. I can well remember—I was in grade 10 at the time—that was seen to be a great thing. But all that did was allow the volume of credit in the system to be controlled by foreign banks. What happened was the amount of foreign debt that the four major banks had went from $8 billion to $800 billion by 2008. Nearly all of that money was lent against housing. All that did was inflate house prices from four or five times earnings to 12 to 13 times earnings. And that, of course, when house prices went to 12 to 13 times earnings, put two parents back in the workforce, and now two parents are actually working for the foreign banks, rather than focusing on raising their children and being involved up at the school, where we desperately need more volunteers helping out with fetes and things like that. So we really need to reform our monetary system. This is a broad economy issue. Thank you.

Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What we've seen in the debate here this afternoon is the Greens, who live in utopia, wanting to solve every problem that every person is facing. It is very noble, but the reality is that we're a party of government. The Greens never have to deliver. They can have their wish list and they can go out there and slam the government as often as they do. They play games all the time. They come in now and move a resolution in relation to renters. But when we were debating our Housing Future fund—$10 billion that the Albanese Labor government had put together to help alleviate the housing problems and the rental problems, which we are very aware of, but we are trying to find real solutions—what did they do? They stalled and they wouldn't support that legislation until they finally got a little bit more so that they could go out and do all their social media.

The reality is that we know we need more affordable and social housing in this country. We know there's a housing crisis. We actually know there's stress on people who are trying to make ends meet because of the difficulties we're facing with higher mortgages, rising interest rates and inflation. But what we're doing as a government, at the National Cabinet level—what we did back in August—is work with the states and territories to get a commitment to a better deal for renters, to harmonise and strengthen renters' rights across Australia.

But if we tried to adopt the solutions the Greens keep talking about, people outside of governments would not invest in real estate to provide that extra home stock from private investors, because they need to have a return. So, the Greens live in utopia. And unfortunately, as I've said many times in this chamber, when they could actually address some of these very serious issues, as we've seen on climate change over the years, if they don't get exactly what they want then they don't vote in support of the government of the day, which we saw when we were in government last time. As a government we're acknowledging how difficult it is out there. People of all ages are facing a crisis in relation to being able to afford a mortgage, to afford rent. And we know that homelessness is a serious issue in this country.

We want to address that. That's why we've done things like making sure we give more support to women and children who are fleeing domestic violence, because women cannot leave a situation if they don't have somewhere to go. So we need more housing stock so that women don't have to stay in those very dangerous circumstances. At the end of the day, every mother will put their child first each and every day of the week. That's what they do. So if they don't have social housing or affordable housing, they cannot leave that environment. It's those mothers and those children who risk their lives. That is really the issue here today. So we need affordable housing. We need social housing.

Instead of working with the government of the day and supporting us so we can get better outcomes, the Greens move these motions so they can get their clicks on social media, beat up on the Labor government, when in fact if they work with us we will get better outcomes, because at the end of the day we're a Labor government who actually relates to people who need our help. We believe in giving people a helping hand—a hand up, not a handout—because that's what people want; that's what Australians want. And there is no bigger threat to any individual than the threat of being homeless—young people ending up on the streets. I was in Melbourne not so very long ago, and you could not walk half a block in the city of Melbourne without seeing homeless people. There were young people, women—young women—and people that obviously have some mental health issues. They don't belong on the street. They deserve to be cared for and to have a safe, secure home. That's what we're working to provide: more social and affordable housing. So I ask the Greens to reconsider. Instead of just knocking this government, work with us.

Ralph Babet (Victoria, United Australia Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I understand Senator McKim's intention with the Greens' urgency motion on the rental crisis, but, unfortunately, I cannot support it, because of basic economics. Price caps are not the answer. We all know that. They have never worked. They will never work. The Australian people are hurting because they want to see action from their government, but, unfortunately, the government is fuelling the fire of inflation with the big migration and big, wasteful spending. Rent caps may appear attractive on the surface, but they are not the solution. In fact, they'll make the problem worse. As our good friend Senator Scarr keeps saying, price caps do not work, because of basic economics. He says it all the time. If there is one rule for economic success, it should be this: do the opposite of what the Greens say or recommend.

Price cap policies often worsen the very problems they seek to address. This has been shown across the world, in places like Paris, Berlin and San Francisco. Overseas experience has shown that rent controls lead to many unintended consequences, including reduced supply, higher housing costs and more bureaucratic control. Forget artificial price controls; the real solution is actually very simple. Just increase supply. But how do we increase supply? That's also very simple. I'll tell you how to do it. We've got to reduce regulations on land developments and to fast-track building approvals. We must incentivise supply by eliminating unneeded taxes, duties and levies on land. Increased supply will naturally reduce rents. Socialism, unfortunately, is not the answer. It'll only lead to greater problems, a lower quality of life, higher prices on absolutely everything and a reduction in our standard of living. Make capitalism great again.

Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd be the first to admit that Senator Babet knows a lot more about real estate than I do, but this is a significant and important issue that is confronting the nation. Over the course of this year, I've been in every capital city of the country, and I've been in a regional town in every state as well. There's not a place I haven't gone where housing is not a significant challenge that those communities are facing. But the Greens have failed to understand the reality. The one thing they have been is consistent, but that is consistently hypocritical on this issue over a long period of time. When you think about the challenge that we face in housing, the biggest issue is supply. There's not one organisation in this country that has done more over decades to oppose more supply than the Greens. That is their record. Senator Gallagher gave a good analysis in the chamber during question time yesterday of the Greens' record when it comes to increasing supply in this country. It's a shameful record. It's not only their federal colleagues; it's also their state colleagues and councillors that are responsible for that across the country. But I'll come to that a bit later. What is so important in this, and what the federal government have been doing since we came to power, is providing the national leadership and working constructively with states and territories, because we know how important this issue is. That's what you'd expect of a federal government led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who knows that this is such an important issue for so many families.

So we're providing national leadership and working with all levels of government to deliver better housing outcomes. This has seen the Commonwealth, state and territory governments come together at the National Cabinet to commit to a better deal for renters which seeks to strengthen renters' rights across Australia, working in conjunction with states, which actually have some responsibilities in this regard. This includes developing a nationally consistent framework around requirements for genuine, reasonable grounds for eviction, moving towards limiting rent increases to once a year and phasing in minimum rental standards, among other changes to make rent fairer. On top of that, we've also increased the maximum rate of Commonwealth rent assistance by 15 per cent—the largest increase in more than 30 years. These are important steps that we are taking to support renters. But we know that there is more to do, and the community expect us to do more as well.

The underlying issue of affordability for buyers and renters is supply. That's why we also have a broad agenda to boost housing supply, including new incentives to boost the supply of rental housing by changing arrangements for investments in build-to-rent accommodation. We're starting to see that come to fruition now. We also have an additional $2 billion in financing for more social and affordable rental housing through Housing Australia, and the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund finally passed to help build more social and affordable rental homes in perpetuity. Independent analysis by the Grattan Institute found that our supply plan could put significant downward pressure on rents, saving renters billions over the next decade.

But while our government has been focused on measures that will actually support renters and boost supply, the Greens political party have been out on their own in communities actively campaigning against the supply of affordable housing. We've seen the Greens housing spokesperson, the member for Griffith, oppose residential aged-care facilities in his own electorate. We've had the Leader of the Greens, Mr Bandt, come out and oppose the Social Housing Accelerator program in his own electorate where there's a plan to replace 196 outdated and uninhabitable dwellings with 231 modern energy-efficient homes, a housing increase of at least 10 per cent on that site. We've also seen the Greens member for Ryan campaign against a plan by the Uniting Church to subdivide an old chicken farm into sites for 91 new homes. This is the record of their federal MPs just this year, let alone the damage that they have done over decades in opposing new housing supplies in many parts of the country. We know that the Greens will come in here, move motions and grandstand, but what they are actually doing practically is increasing these challenges on the housing front in many communities across the country and making it harder for councils and states to do their job.

That is not the approach of the federal government. We want to make sure that we're working constructively with states and with councils because we know that the key to doing this is the federal government doing their part on ensuring that we're building affordable housing while also increasing supply so that we're giving more opportunity for more homes to be built that are not only social and affordable housing but for people who want to enter the market at the same time. That is the record of this government. That is a proud one to stand by, and we're sick of the political games from the Greens.

Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We are in a rental crisis, with more and more people experiencing severe rental stress and unable to afford a roof over their heads. Wages are crawling while rents are soaring. The rental affordability index released yesterday by peak housing body National Shelter shows that people can no longer afford to rent homes within 15 kilometres of the CBD in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth. My home city of Meanjin or Brisbane is now the third most unaffordable capital in Australia for renters. Affordability has dropped by nine per cent in just the last year. The rental crisis is particularly impacting those on low incomes, with a single pensioner now having to spend 64 per cent of their income just to rent a one-bedroom home—and that's if they can find one. A single person on JobSeeker is now completely priced out of many suburbs, with the average rent taking up 106 per cent of their income—raise the rate! But it's not only people living in capital cities that are experiencing rental stress. Things are even worse in regional Queensland, which is now the least-affordable place in Australia to rent. The least-affordable suburb in regional Queensland is Eumundi, on the Sunny Coast, where a median rental of $1,050 per week costs 58 per cent of the average regional householder's income, which is almost double the threshold for housing stress.

We know that older women and women escaping family and domestic violence are particularly vulnerable to rental stress and homelessness. For many women escaping violence, they're choosing between staying in violence and homelessness. Jenny is a 73-year-old woman who has lived in her car for nine months because she was not able to find housing when she escaped violence. Gold Coast pensioner Gayle Fuller was on the public housing waiting list for five years and would skip buying necessities to make ends meet while she was renting. There are currently more than 3,600 people over the age of 65 that are waiting for public housing because they've been priced out of the rental market. Younger renters are also experiencing record high rental stress, combined with the fact that they're now the most financially stressed generation in the country.

It doesn't have to be this way. Labor could immediately ease this rental crisis by stopping unlimited rent increases. Unlimited rent hikes should be illegal. Labor have every seat bar one at National Cabinet, and they could use the National Cabinet to coordinate a rent freeze. The Greens forced this issue onto the National Cabinet agenda before we agreed to pass the Housing Australia Future Fund, but there were only marginal changes by some states on rent, and the federal government still refuse to show any leadership on rent. We will continue to call on federal Labor to incentivise the states and territories to freeze rent increases for two years, with ongoing caps after that.

We know that rents are now one of the key drivers of inflation, so freezing rents for two years could have not only put close to $4,000 in the pockets of renters but helped control inflation at the same time. At a time when everyone is counting every single dollar, that would be a life-saving cost-of-living measure.

I want to compare that with the PBO costing of the subsidies that property developers get in negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions. Property investors get $39 billion of public money in tax concessions this year alone, while renters are having to pay $4.9 billion extra in rent because Labor have decided that they're going to lock in unlimited yearly rent increases. Thirty-nine billion dollars to property developers and nothing for renters? We will keep fighting for a freeze and a cap on rent increases and for more billions of dollars for more public and affordable housing. Get it done. It is your responsibility.

James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Waters. Senator Roberts.

Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We agree with part of this Greens matter of urgency—that we are in a rental crisis, with more people experiencing rental stress and unable to afford a home due to Labor government policies and deceit. We disagree on how to fix it. There's absolutely nothing that can be done to fix the housing and rental crisis until we cut the absolutely insane numbers of overseas arrivals this government is letting into our country. Excluding tourists and short-stay visa holders, there are 2.3 million visa holders in the country right now. Every single one of them needs a roof over their head, and that's leading to record house prices and the lowest rental vacancy rate in history. Housing is tight and therefore expensive. It's impossible to build enough houses or freeze enough prices to fix the housing problem until this immigration tidal wave is cut. What the Greens propose is going to increase rental costs. Instead of putting banks and big business first, put people first.

James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Roberts. Senator Allman-Payne.

Penny Allman-Payne (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We are in a rental crisis that is spiralling out of control. There is little else that cuts to the core of the cost of living like being unable to afford the roof over your head, the most basic right to shelter. Renters around this country are at their breaking point, and the Labor government have committed to unlimited rent rises. They must wear the burden of the rental crisis. The new rental affordability index, as my colleague Larissa Waters has said, shows that rental affordability has continued to worsen, particularly in regional areas.

Our home state of Queensland is now home to the least affordable regional areas in Australia. The average rental household in regional Queensland is in rental stress. Let me be clear: if you are a renter in the regions, you are more likely than not to be in rental stress. This is an abhorrent crisis, facilitated and rubber-stamped by the major parties. We have given our housing system over to property developers and banks. Rents going up is the system working by design. Skyrocketing rents are the outcome of the Albanese government picking the side of developers and not renters.

This is only the beginning of a web of problems. What does the Labor government expect to happen to these renters when, in the midst of one of the hottest summers on record, they're going to be forced to scramble for homes amidst skyrocketing rents? How do they expect these people to be able to pay for basic amenities like air conditioning, power and fans? This rental crisis will worsen in ways that the Labor government is unwilling to accept. I know firsthand that renters in regional Queensland are struggling. In my office in Gladstone, I put out a community pantry every day, full of the most basic essentials needed to survive. Every single day, tens of people coming to and from the department of housing, which is upstairs, empty it out. These are just the basic necessities: milk, tinned beans, rice, tampons, toothpaste, flour. This is a grievous failing of the Labor government and of all MPs across the state. What else is there to being in government than providing the most basic needs of survival to everyone—than affording everyone in this country the basic necessities and dignity? Last week, Labor prioritised rushing through legislation to benefit big corporations like Santos, INPEX and Woodside. Where is the Labor government's urgency for rushing through legislation for the people across Australia who will sleep in their cars tonight?

Recently, my office was contacted by a constituent who has been sleeping on the kitchen floor of their parents' granny flat. The family fled persecution to come to Australia 12 years ago and they have been waiting for public housing for 10 years. This constituent has been supporting their elderly parents but they can no longer work due to injury. Added to that, they're struggling, along with their parents, from the trauma of their circumstances and refugee status. The flat has no laundry facilities or working cooking facilities. To make do, they are using a temporary gas cooktop and bottle, at extreme risk to their health from carbon monoxide poisoning. For this they're paying $660 a fortnight. That is completely unacceptable. It is completely unacceptable for people in this country to be forced to live like this. The Greens refuse to walk past the reality of people living in Australia and ignore the struggle of their circumstances.

James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question before the chair is that the motion moved by Senator McKim be agreed to.