Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. According to Australia's first rental affordability index, families in Queensland who are on $500 a week have to spend 54 per cent of their income to rent a home. While these families are already doing it tough, will the Prime Minister rule out making it even harder for them by raising the price of everything with an increased GST?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

To answer the question, I think issues of rental affordability and issues housing affordability are incredibly important. That is why today, in our response to the Harper review, we said that we want to engage with the states and territories on reforms to planning and zoning laws that deal with the single biggest driver of housing prices in the country, which is the lack of supply. So, on this side of the House, we are actually focused on economic solutions that will support and boost housing affordability in this country by focusing on the things that are denying young Australians, in particular, the ability to get in and buy a home—and you do that by addressing the supply issues.

But there are also major challenges that have to be addressed with the provision of social housing by the states. This is another important area where there can be major reform, where we will work with the states and territories right across the board to ensure that we can deliver social housing support—and the Minister for Social Services is a passionate advocate on this—to ensure we work with the system between Commonwealth rental assistance and how social housing is delivered at a state level. We can work through the reforms, because we are working with the states and territories to deliver better outcomes and better choices for the Australian people.

Those opposite may want to continue to raise their scare campaigns, the not-so-scary scare campaigns, about a 15 per cent figure, which is getting everybody excited for all the wrong reasons on their side of the House today. But we are focused on the economic reforms that are going to support Australians to get into houses, that are going to support Australians to access more affordable rental accommodation in this country, because we have real solutions to those problems.