Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a great pleasure to be here. I rise to speak on the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (Incentivising Pensioners to Downsize) Bill 2022.

Australia is currently facing a housing shortage, with many young families unable to secure suitable homes. The supply of housing is the most significant factor in this crisis. Throughout the pandemic, house prices soared, with high demand and low housing supply pushing the dream of homeownership further down the road for many young families. In order to free up family homes in the market for young families, it is vital that older Australians are able to downsize when they no longer want to maintain that large family residence and that they are not penalised for doing so.

The coalition are supporting this bill, as the measures within it were first announced by us on this side. It does exactly what we committed to do at the last election—that is, to double the asset test exemption to two years when pensioners downsize from their family home, giving them more time to plan their future and, I might add, less lawn to mow. More importantly, we are supporting this bill because it will provide pensioners with the ability to extend from 12 to 24 months their existing asset test exemption for principal home sale proceeds from which a person intends to purchase a new principal home. As the shadow minister has stated, the best way to support older Australians in incentivising them to downsize is to remove the disincentives that exist in the system.

The measures in this bill follow a strong framework laid out by the previous coalition government. During our time in government, we announced that Australians aged 65 or over could, from the proceeds of selling their home, make a non-concessional contribution of up to $300,000 into superannuation from 1 July 2018. Earlier this year, we further enhanced this measure, reducing the eligibility age from 65 to 60. The results of these policies speak for themselves, as we saw 36,800 individuals contribute some $8.9 billion to their superannuation under this measure, from July 2018 to January 2022. Imitation, of course, is the most sincerest form of flattery, and there is no greater measure of the success of these policies than Labor adopting our commitment from the previous election to further reduce the eligibility age to 55 for non-concessional contributions. But the flattery from the Labor government does not end there. As I mentioned earlier, the very measures sought to be implemented in this bill were first announced by the coalition at the federal election. So successful and robust is the homeownership framework built by the coalition that it can not only withstand a Labor government but continue to grow in spite of it.

We have a strong track record of not only helping older Australians who are looking to downsize but also assisting young families into their first home through measures such as our home guarantee schemes. During the previous government, the coalition supported more than 300,000 Australians in the purchase of a home. We supported almost 60,000 first home buyers and single-parent families into homeownership through measures consisting of the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme and the New Home Guarantee, and the Family Home Guarantee, with a deposit of as little at five per cent and two per cent, respectively. The coalition government protected the residential construction industry, with more than 137,000 HomeBuilder applications generating $120 billion of economic activity. This action was paramount in not only keeping the construction industry afloat but ensuring that it was in a position to respond to the housing demand that the country now faces.

Responding to the strains on low-income earners, we provided $2.9 billion of low-cost loans to community housing providers to support 15,000 social and affordable houses, saving $470 million in interest payments, to be reinvested in more affordable housing. In total, we unlocked 6,900 social, affordable and market dwellings through the coalition's $1 billion infrastructure facility to make housing supply more responsive. Through this framework of tangible and measurable achievements, we then announced this very policy, working in tandem and building on a variety of measures to provide further supply and removing impositions for first home buyers.

While the coalition will be supporting these measures today, there is much more that should be done to address housing supply shortages and to foster growth in ownership across the country. Earlier this year, the coalition government was already providing additions to our framework to address these concerns. At the recent federal election, the coalition government made a commitment to establish a super homebuyer scheme to allow first home buyers to invest up to 40 per cent of their superannuation, up to a maximum of $50,000, to help with the purchase of their first home. We would have built upon our First Home Guarantee by raising the number of low-deposit guarantees for first home buyers to 35,000 each financial year, and we would have increased property price caps for the Home Guarantee Scheme to ensure that Australians continued to have a choice when purchasing their home.

We would have also continued to support our regions by incentivising the purchase of new-build homes, providing 10,000 low-deposit guarantees each financial year for those moving to or within regional areas. Opportunities for homeownership among single-parent families would have been expanded by increasing the number of low-deposit guarantees for single-parent families to buy a home, with a deposit of as little as two per cent, to 5,000 each financial year. Finally, we would have also supported greater investment into affordable housing, with an additional $2 billion in low-cost financing for social and affordable dwellings, bringing total low-cost financing to $5.5 billion, supporting around 27,500 dwellings.

In stark contrast, Labor is committing funds in an off-budget fund to support a housing program that currently has no substance and lacks detailed costings or an implementation plan. Labor's Help to Buy scheme is, at best, a niche program that very few Australians would even qualify for, let alone want to participate in. Significantly, this scheme will do nothing for housing affordability, because it does not support supply—the aspect of housing affordability which this bill directly aims to address. If there is one thing that is abundantly clear from Labor's track record in this space, it's that they are better off implementing coalition policies instead of coming to their own conclusions.

Owning your own home is still a fundamental part of the Australian dream. Eighty-five per cent of renters aspire to own their own home. Homeownership offers security and stability for both individuals and families. A home is the largest purchase most Australians will make in their lives. And, without a doubt, it will be their most important and cherished asset. That's why it is so vital that government does not stifle supply, providing the economic conditions that allow these dreams to be fulfilled. I commend this bill to the House.

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