Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I stand here today in support of the member for Mitchell’s motion before this House that ‘the cost of housing in Australia is often more than double what it should be’ and that ‘the main causes are state and local government planning restrictions and taxes’. That is a statement of fact. It surprises me that the member opposite is trying to defend state governments. We have belled the cat on these out-of-control state governments, because they are the ones that are out of control. Members opposite have defended the indefensible—but they have to, because all of the state and territory governments are Labor governments. Of course they would rush in to support their mates.

One of the greatest hypocrisies that has happened in the House this afternoon is this: in question time, the member for Lilley asked several questions regarding information provided by Alan Moran in his book The Tragedy of Planning: Losing the Great Australian Dream. The member for Lilley was trying to use this information to say that the Prime Minister’s outing of state governments is wrong. I want to use Dr Moran’s own words to demonstrate that not only the Prime Minister but also all the experts in this area are correct. In the foreword of the book, Ron Silberberg says quite clearly:

Unfortunately, housing has become much less affordable in recent times.

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Why has this occurred? Alan Moran’s analysis dismisses interest rates as a significant factor … Nor is it the cost of building which … has remained remarkably stable over time in real terms.

He continues:

The increased costs largely relate to the rising price of land on our city fringes. Government-imposed restrictions on land supplies, ‘development levies’ to fund infrastructure and increasing layers of regulation all contribute. Planning restrictions in particular, are choking our cities and increasingly pushing up the prices in what were once the most affordable places to purchase a home.

This is from someone who is an expert in this area—not from someone who has got a latter-day economics degree and has then twisted it. At the end of the day, here we have an expert in this area who knows what he is talking about.

In terms of restriction of land supplies, there are about 240 hectares in Perth called the Bushmead Rifle Range which we tried to give the state government. We said to them, ‘Would you take this and develop it, because you have a shortage of land.’ The state government back in 2001 would not even get involved, so we had to take it back. The state government were not interested in developing a vast amount of inner-urban land.

As a result, the federal government is now trying to dispose of this land for housing. But what has happened? Alannah MacTiernan, the state Minister for Planning and Infrastructure, and her department, have put a go-slow on this and are coming up with ideas such as ‘the bush forever’ and other restrictions. This information about some of the impediments has been available for more than five years. They overlay the restrictions to land rollout with not only taxes and charges but a huge layer of bureaucracy and red tape, which forces up prices. Mr Moran, in the West Australian last week, in an article titled ‘Waking up to the great Australian nightmare’—instead of the great Australian dream—pointed out that in Perth the ratio of median house prices to median income now stands at 8.7, which is higher than in Sydney. In fact, he says that within the next 12 months 30,000 new home buyers are predicted to come into the market but that there are only 4,000 lots available. How does having 30,000 buyers and 4,000 lots available work?

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