John Murphy (Lowe, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Shame on all the government members. The Howard government is opportunistically and cynically using parliament’s time to breathe a gasp of oxygen into the debilitating campaign of Peter Debnam. There can be no doubt that the dream of homeownership is slowly falling out of reach of many middle and lower income families, particularly young families. First home buyers in Australia now spend more than 30 per cent of their disposable income on a mortgage. The average monthly repayment for a first home buyer of $2,300 is an all-time high.

My electorate of Lowe, in the inner west of Sydney, has one of the highest proportions of households in Australia suffering from mortgage stress. If things are so good, and if the economy is so good, as the Treasurer keeps telling us, why are so many families in my electorate of Lowe sinking one-third of their disposable income straight into their mortgages? I can assure the member for Mitchell that the release of land in Greater Western Sydney and the abolition of infrastructure levies will not solve the housing affordability problems faced by families in my electorate.

The motion put to us today is disingenuous and reveals that the Howard government seek to completely abrogate their responsibility and blame someone else. That is the truth. The government say that it has nothing to do with them—but it does. Four interest rate rises since the last election mean that Australians are paying a higher proportion of their income on mortgage interest repayments than ever before. If the government are serious about putting the dream of homeownership back in reach of ordinary New South Wales families, they can start by addressing the skills crisis—not blaming the price of bananas or pointing the finger at each of the states.

If we are to seriously discuss the dream of homeownership, why are we not discussing matters that the Howard government can control? Why are we not discussing the Howard government’s failure to address Australia’s skills crisis—a crisis which has increased the cost of building a home and has put upward pressure on interest rates? Why are we not discussing the implementation of a national settlement strategy, so that all levels of government can plan for changes in population, housing demand and demographics? If this debate is to amount to something more than an exercise in cynical political opportunism, we should discuss innovative ideas, such as shared equity arrangements, better targeting the first home owner grant and investing in Australia’s infrastructure. It takes strength and leadership to pursue these ideas. Perhaps it should come as no surprise that the Howard government has chosen to take the easy option of passing the buck and then playing the blame game.

Despite a serious imbalance between the state’s revenue-raising powers and expenditure responsibilities, the New South Wales government has shown far more interest in this critical issue than a cashed-up federal government which is raking in record levels of tax. New South Wales has the most generous package of first home buyer concessions and grants in Australia. It has provided $651 million worth of grants and concessions to 57,862 first home buyers. It has abolished the vendor duty and zoned 33,000 greenfield lots since 2003. The land is there but it is not being released because of the increases, and threats of further increases, in interest rates—as the member for Mitchell and other government speakers know. That there has been a drop in the value of land in Western Sydney proves that mass land releases on the city’s fringes are not the issue.

If the member for Mitchell has his way, many battlers could be left with a mortgage debt that is higher than their property value. The member for Mitchell also condemns the state government for raising funds to invest directly in infrastructure and essential services. History has shown—and the member for Mitchell should know this only too well—that the quick fix solution of releasing vast tracts of land without infrastructure and essential services does not work. Land releases must go hand in hand with infrastructure planning and funding.

To move a motion in this House which is solely critical of the New South Wales government, while ignoring the failures of the federal government on a wide variety of matters, is breathtaking hypocrisy and double standards. True to form, the Howard government is all too willing to bag the New South Wales government for the housing affordability crisis while it ignores its own negligence and failure to address the underlying issues causing this crisis.

The dysfunctional nature of state-federal funding arrangements is putting New South Wales under enormous financial stress, yet the New South Wales government has still used its limited means to promote the interests of homebuyers. Rather than sitting on money that belongs to the people of New South Wales, the Howard government should be investing in skills, infrastructure and other measures that will alleviate pressure on homebuyers. It is hypocritical for a cashed-up federal government—which is doing little—to condemn a state government which is being squeezed financially but doing a lot more for homebuyers.

I condemn this motion. Parliament’s time would be far better spent debating the merits of a shared equity scheme and targeted first home owners grants—not opportunistic, flawed criticisms of the New South Wales government. It is time the Howard government stopped playing politics and started acting as an agent for aspiring homebuyers. (Time expired)

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