Kate Chaney (Curtin, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

My electorate of Curtin has a slightly higher proportion of households owning their house and a slightly lower proportion than the national average paying off a mortgage, with a fairly average 31 per cent renting. But, even in this context, one in four renters in Curtin are paying more than 30 per cent of their household income in rent and there are plenty of examples of housing stress in my electorate. For example, Lucy contacted the office for assistance with her elderly friend, Margaret. Margaret's in her 70s, and the home she rents in Swanbourne had recently been sold. When she contacted us, Margaret had six weeks to find another home but was having trouble accessing affordable rental. Margaret was distressed and confused about her rights as a renter as well as government support options. She didn't want to leave her community or her local part-time dog-walking job.

There are two main issues with housing, and both require a long-term approach. These are affordability and access. Affordability is an issue that isn't going away. When I bought my first house in the nineties, the median house price was, as pointed out by the member for Mayo, 2.5 times the median income, and now it's up to 10 times. To address household affordability, we need to balance the interests of four different groups: current homeowners, who have their savings tied up in their houses as their key asset; prospective owners, who want to own a home but can't get into the market; renters, who may not want to or be able to get into homeownership; and investors, who may have invested their superannuation or other savings in property based on expectations about the regulatory environment in the property market. All these groups have valid concerns, some of which are in direct conflict.

To address these conflicts fairly, we need to take a long-term view and return to the purpose of housing, which is to provide people with homes. Successive governments have taken a short-term approach to this issue, throwing fuel on the fire, increasing demand and putting upward pressure on housing prices. Government assistance has mainly pushed up purchase prices for first-home buyers rather than making the first purchase of a home more affordable. Our tax settings are aligned with maintaining or increasing house prices. They favour property investors at the expense of people trying to buy a home, which fuels speculative investment, causing house prices to rise much faster than incomes. It's understandable that successive governments have shied away from addressing underlying affordability issues, because the decline in house prices is politically unpalatable for those who are already in the housing market as owners or investors. We can't ignore this issue. It will require a long-term approach, including the community in conversations and phasing in changes over time to minimise the impact on current property owners.

The second key issue is access; access to safe housing is absolutely vital. Yesterday I met with Angie, who was deeply worried about the security of her housing. She was renting privately with her three kids and because she was owed, but hadn't been paid, child support her Centrelink payments had been unilaterally cut. This means she's now paying 70 per cent of her income to maintain her housing. If you don't have stable housing it's very difficult to provide a stable environment for kids, let alone address mental or physical health issues or find a job. Housing is increasingly seen as the foundation stone for people to get their lives back together when they're experiencing hard times.

As of May 2022 there were nearly 19,000 households on the social housing waitlist in my home state of WA, and 163,000 across the country. In WA, the average wait time for social housing is more than two years. Even on the priority waitlist—for example, people who have young children—the average wait time is 43 weeks. If you have a disability the situation is even harder; Western Australia has not picked up the amendments to the National Construction Code that require all houses to have minimum levels of accessibility, so there are limited numbers of homes that are suitable. The proposed Housing Australia Future Fund is a start but, with the provision of 20,000 homes for social housing over the next five years, it will only meet one eighth of the social housing waitlist.

We must do better than this. We must decide whether we want to live in a country where people have access to safe and affordable housing, and can reasonably aspire to home ownership, and then set our policy priorities accordingly.

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