Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

It must have been a rough time indeed yesterday in the Liberal Party party room. The Leader of the Opposition raises a question which goes to the link between the government’s economic stimulus strategy on the one hand and employment and jobs on the other. The question, in particular, that he raises is the extent to which our provision of payments to pensioners and to carers and our provision of support to first home buyers have a material effect on the economy and jobs. Obviously the Leader of the Opposition, in his search for evidence, has not gone to today’s housing finance data, produced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Let me read this to him, because it goes directly to a key element of the economic stimulus strategy which he raises in his question and which was supported by him then and opposed by him subsequently. What we see today from this data is that the ABS shows that the proportion of first home buyers seeking finance approvals has jumped to 26.5 per cent. This is the highest proportion since the series began in 1991. Let me quote Joshua Williams, the economist of TD Securities, who says:

The increase in housing finance numbers in January for owner-occupiers was the fourth consecutive monthly increase and suggests that the cumulative falls in mortgage interest rates and increase to the first home owners grant have been successful in luring more potential buyers out of the woodwork.

I would also draw the Leader of the Opposition’s attention to the following: the number of owner-occupied housing finance commitments increased by 3.5 per cent in January after increasing by 6.7 per cent in December.

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