Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the National Rental Affordability Scheme Bill 2008 and the National Rental Affordability Scheme (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2008. Professor Julian Disney, the Director of the Social Justice Project at the University of New South Wales, said in an essay in 2008—and he was referring to affordable housing:

Without it, people are impoverished, families and communities eroded, jobs lost and the economy weakened and the environment damaged.

Hundreds of thousands of Australians are living in housing that they cannot afford. Julian Disney in his essay pointed out that perhaps a greater number are hidden victims of this crisis. These people can only find affordable housing by living long distances from work, family and friends, often on the urban outskirts of metropolitan areas and in neighbouring rural communities. These regions particularly lack infrastructure, ready access to health and adequate schooling facilities.

In part, the geography and history of our settlement in this country have concentrated our populations around the major capital cities—particularly Sydney and Melbourne and, more lately, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. With the exceptions of Geelong, Newcastle and the Illawarra region, my home state of Queensland, which is the most decentralised state in the country, has in South-East Queensland one in seven people living in the country. The South-East Queensland Regional Plan 2005-2026 of the Queensland state Labor government is a great document because it is about managing growth in South-East Queensland and it is a great fillip for my local community of Ipswich and its rural outskirts. It is in those areas that most of the growth in South-East Queensland will occur in the next 20 years.

When people cannot find affordable housing in the cities they pay a disproportionate cost in terms of transport in our country. They pay higher petrol prices than those who live in cities, who often use public transport which is readily available. I know that the people in my area, in particular the Lockyer Valley and the Boonah shire, readily commute to Ipswich, to Toowoomba and to Brisbane—long distances—to get to work. That puts pressure on families.

In my area the supply of rental housing is not sufficient. It simply is not sufficient to cope with the growth in population. And demand is acute, as people are spilling over into Ipswich and beyond as the Sunshine Coast, the Gold Coast and Brisbane fill up. That means that the price of housing has increased for first home owners and others and that the cost of rent has risen dramatically.

The lack of affordable housing in my area and nationally was aggravated by the previous, Howard government’s almost ideological aversion to public housing, and it is by the area of public housing that the Howard government are most disgraced and most shamed. Privatisation was their mantra. Discussions I had with a number of people in the public housing sector in Queensland and particularly the Labor government’s housing minister Robert Schwarten have shown me quite clearly the great frustration they had in getting the ear of government and an adequate response in terms of funding. Perhaps the deinstitutionalisation of people with mental health problems and other disabilities further aggravated the crisis; certainly, in the area of Ipswich—the Challinor Centre there was closed—that is the case.

Often for the families in my area a second job is absolutely required to be able to afford adequate housing. It is common to find single-income and single-person dwellings in our inner cities, such as in Brisbane, but most Australians with partners and children must work longer hours to meet the cost of living, to adequately clothe their children, to pay for their schooling and to meet their health needs, and so they live a long way from their places of work, and that puts enormous pressure on family life. The stress on relationships can be severe. Simply getting the children to school and to extracurricular activities is a real challenge—and I pay tribute to grandparents, who so often seem to help in that regard. If you do not believe me, have a look at any public school in my area between 3 pm and 3.30 pm every day.

It is common in the federal electorate of Blair for people to have to travel about 1.5 hours to work in Brisbane each day. That is three hours of the day taken out of family life, with the consequent cost to recreation, and civic and community life. And so our schools, our churches, our sporting and cultural clubs also suffer. Social inclusion suffers accordingly.

Tragically, the many warnings about the developing housing crisis in this country were ignored by the Howard government. The National Rental Affordability Scheme contained in this legislation is a very cost-effective method of increasing the stock of housing. Insisting on a reduction in the rent by providers of housing will mean no inflationary impact on the rental market. In my electorate, according to the latest statistics, 8,889 households are renting and it is the case that there are 3,413 households in rental stress—paying in excess of 30 per cent of their household income on the cost of housing. That is a figure of 38.4 per cent. You can see, Mr Deputy Speaker, what an impact any measure to reduce the cost of housing in terms of rent will have on my electorate.

I have spoken to a number of real estate agents in my area, and there are many. They tell me that the cost of housing in my area has gone up dramatically. Despite the fact that there has been a decrease in some of the major capital cities in this country, in Ipswich and the rural areas beyond somewhere between six and eight times the average weekly wage is needed to pay for a home. Typically, young couples are paying double what their parents paid in mortgage payments and rent, and that is sad.

The Rudd Labor government has invested in its housing package $2.2 billion over the next four years. I warmly welcome these initiatives, most of which were contained in the budget. There was $1.2 billion mentioned in the budget to help new home buyers save for a deposit, there is $623 million to create 50,000 new rental properties through the National Rental Affordability Scheme contained in the legislation before this House and there is the $512 million Housing Affordability Fund to deliver in terms of new entry-level housing more homes more quickly and at less cost with improved supply. I am looking forward to the green loans, which will help hundreds of thousands of people and many in my area to improve the energy and water efficiency of their dwellings.

An interesting thing that the Rudd government has done is allocate $30 million from the Housing Affordability Fund to fast-track the national rollout of a modern electronic development assessment system to replace the paper-based system. As someone who practised as a lawyer in his younger days and had to deal with the Registrar of Titles, various councils and other government bodies in Queensland, I assure you that using modern technology is a much improved way to do conveyancing and to establish new houses through the development process.

To show just how important this sort of legislation is to my area a few facts are necessary. By 2026 the Ipswich area could have as many as 418,000 people living in it. At the moment there are 155,000 people living in Ipswich. Simply getting new homes approved is crucial. The Queensland Times, the only daily local newspaper in my area, reported on 2 July 2008:

Up to 12,500 new homes need to be built over the next five years to cope with Ipswich’s growing population.

Housing Industry Association (HIA) assistant director of Industry Policy Ben Phillips said based on the latest ABS demographic regional figures, between 2006-2007 Ipswich had a population growth rate of 3.55 per cent ...

The latest figures have shown that growth is now in excess of four per cent. That means that we simply need to approve new dwellings all the time in Ipswich. The article continues:

Ipswich Mayor Paul Pisasale said the Ipswich Planning Scheme had the capacity to house about 500,000 people in designated urban areas …

“Priority growth areas at present are Springfield, Redbank Plains, Bellbird Park, Raceview, Flinders View, Yamanto and Brassall …

Brassall is the biggest suburb in my electorate. This all shows the need for more dwellings that people can buy and rent.

In my area, on 18 September 2008, the weekly newspaper the Ipswich News reported that two new housing developments worth $1.3 billion are to add 3,400 homes to the Ipswich rental and home-purchasing market to capitalise on the city’s population boom. In the eastern part of my electorate, on School Road, there will be 1,400 new dwellings, which, when completed, will have a value of $500 million.

The legislation before the House today goes hand in glove with our fight to ensure that the tragic problem of homelessness is addressed. I sincerely applaud the government’s announcement of $150 million to build 600 new homes for the homeless across the country.

I have travelled around Ipswich with the Booval Community Service. The people there are hardworking and dedicated. They provide emergency relief and rental accommodation, with no-interest loans and loans of up to $800 for whitegoods for low-income earners.

I recently had a meeting with the Ipswich Community Youth Service. It was a very sad meeting in many ways because I was told that the number of people availing themselves of their accommodation services and practical assistance has increased by up to three times in the last year. So you can see, Mr Deputy Speaker, in my area of Ipswich and the Lockyer Valley in Boonah just how important this legislation is.

I note that the Minister for Housing in her second reading speech on the National Rental Affordability Scheme Bill said:

The National Rental Affordability Scheme is a key part of the government’s $2.2 billion affordable housing package, which will increase the supply of affordable rental homes, help people save for their first home, lower housing infrastructure costs and build new homes for homeless Australians.

As former House of Representatives Speaker in the US Tip O’Neill said, all politics is local. This bill will have a huge local impact in my area.

I warmly welcome the legislation. I do so as I also welcome the Economic Security Strategy of the Rudd Labor government and the increase in the first home owners grant to $14,000 to purchase an established home and $21,000 to purchase a newly constructed home. This, along with the other assistance in that package, will help 43,701 households in my electorate. It shows me, and I hope it will show the people of my electorate, that the Rudd Labor government is caring for the people of South-East Queensland, for the people of Ipswich and its rural surrounds. I warmly welcome the legislation and I commend it to the chamber.

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