Elizabeth Watson-Brown (Ryan, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I want to talk today about what Labor's housing policy really means for everyday Australians: $24 billion in profit for the banks. That's what Labor's latest housing policy is really about. Let's break down the details of how Labor is forcing first home buyers to risk their financial future to enrich the big banks. The current median house price in Australia is around $860,000. That's up by almost $20,000 in the September quarter. Before the introduction of this new policy, by the way, assuming a standard mortgage rate and a five per cent deposit, a first home buyer will pay an additional $140,000 in interest. In total, first home buyers will pay banks an extra $24 billion in interest during the first five years of this policy alone. The same modelling suggests Labor's five per cent deposit scheme could increase house prices by 10 per cent in the first year.

This policy doesn't address any of the issues that have caused the housing crisis. It doesn't address negative gearing or capital gains tax discounts for property investors, it doesn't build public housing and it doesn't help first home buyers because it was never designed to. This policy does one thing: it transfers wealth from everyday Australians to massive corporations. Every time we Greens get up here and say, 'Maybe we should actually build public housing,' we get told, 'Don't be so ridiculous; don't be silly; it's so expensive. How can the government possibly build something at that scale?' Putting aside the fact that governments used to build masses of public housing—around 25 per cent of all new stock post-World War II—it's also a matter of priorities: what the government is willing to spend money on and what it's not, like the AUKUS agreement, where we're handing billions and billions of dollars over to the United States for submarines that might never be delivered, as well as—get this—public housing for US troops and private defence contractors. Unbelievable!

Let's do a little thought experiment. How many submarines would $368 billion buy us? How many houses would $368 billion build? Under the AUKUS deal, we're paying $368 billion for submarines that may not happen. That's right, AUKUS is going to cost Australians $36 million every day for 25 years. Now, the ABS has the average cost to build a house at a bit under $400,000. If the government were to build public housing like we used to, we could do it much, much cheaper, but let's assume $400,000. This $368 billion could purchase one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight submarines. Or $368 billion could build one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, 965,000 homes. That's right, we could clear the entire waiting list for social housing and take huge steps towards solving the housing crisis.

Meanwhile, in capital cities around Australia, median house prices have increased by $35,000 in the last three months. They increased by $26,000 in the three months before that. Labor and the LNP would clearly rather give billions of dollars to US weapons manufacturers than deal with the housing crisis they created.

Now, let's be very clear, a policy that accelerates house price growth is not a housing policy; it is an enrichment policy for Labor's donors in the property development and banking industries. First home buyers are going to be stuck paying higher prices with incredibly high repayments and, should the worst happen and they're unable to meet those repayments, it will be the Australian taxpayers picking up the bill, not the banks.

The Greens and I will continue to push for real solutions to this crisis, such as scrapping the tax handouts for property investors that help them outcompete first home buyers—those tax handouts actually help property investors outcompete first home buyers—along with a mass build of housing that people can actually afford.

Debate adjourned.

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