Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Housing is a basic human right and, as such, I very much enjoyed working on the Senate Select Committee on Housing Affordability in Australia and looking at the extremely important issue of barriers to home ownership. When the Senate passed the motion referring the issue of housing affordability to the committee, I think some of the senators on that committee thought it would just be about housing ownership—that is, housing affordability equated to housing ownership. What is very clear from this inquiry is that, in many cities across Australia, people are facing a crisis not only in housing ownership but also in private rental—particularly in my home state of Western Australia. We need to take a comprehensive and integrated approach to housing so that we address affordability for both home ownership and rental. We need to make sure that we have a balance there. The Greens are certainly concerned about this issue, and I have made some additional comments in relation to it in the committee’s report.

While the Greens support the report, we are concerned about the influence that the first home owners grant might have on the types of homes that are bought and how that would then impact on rental affordability. The Greens have put forward a further recommendation to look at the first home owners grant as well as means testing and capping the cost of a house on which you can apply for a first home owners grant.

The shining light that came out of this inquiry, which Senator Moore also referred to, is the work being done by the community housing sector. At every place the committee went to in Australia, we found excellent examples of the community housing sector finding innovative solutions to our housing crisis—in particular, with its focus on how to provide low-cost housing to the most disadvantaged. We found through the inquiry that the states, in particular, and the Commonwealth have not been investing to the degree necessary in what used to be called public housing—which is now called social housing. People who would normally have been accommodated in social housing are no longer being so accommodated, and they are facing a real crisis in finding reliable, appropriate and affordable accommodation.

Instead of looking at ownership, we need to look at security of tenure. The things that we put onto housing in terms of the social benefits that it provides—such as financial security, stability of social networks, engagement and connectivity to community—are actually supplied through security of tenure. Governments at local, state and federal levels need to take on board the concept of security of tenure and ensure that it is supplied to people who are trying to find accommodation. Community housing organisations are looking at investing in this area and want to ensure that there is security of tenure.

Another issue that came up during the hearing was credit and its availability. People are getting into trouble with credit because they will do anything to pay their home loan. While we are not yet seeing a huge number of home repossessions, community organisations that provide emergency relief report that there is a massive increase in the number of people seeking emergency relief and financial counselling. I think this is an indication that people are starting to move into financial crisis, but they are doing everything they can to keep paying their mortgage. This situation will require a review of access to credit and advice provided to people who want to access credit. People are putting their home loans on their credit cards and are building a massive amount of debt as a result. (Time expired)