Ben Small (Forrest, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Electoral Matters) Share this | Hansard source

This motion suggests that, under Labor, the housing crisis is easing, renting is fairer, homeownership is within reach for young Australians and the government is changing lives. Unfortunately, Australians can't live in Labor media releases. They only live in the real world. In the real world, housing is more expensive, more scarce and more insecure than it was when this government took office. Renting today is not easier, fairer nor more affordable. In fact, renters today face the worst rental affordability in some two decades—worse than at any time during the GFC and worse than at any time under a coalition government. National median rents have risen by more than 30 per cent. Low-income renters are spending more than one third of their income on rent, and, in a majority of Australian markets, less than 20 per cent of rental stock is affordable for someone on the minimum wage. It is abundantly clear to us on this side of the House that you cannot regulate your way out of a supply shortage. Red tape is killing the construction of new housing in Australia, and, until this can be fixed, renters ultimately pay the price.

The government claims its five per cent deposit scheme has made a difference to first home buyers, but this scheme hasn't built a single home and hasn't increased or corrected the disparity between supply and demand, and it has pushed housing prices even higher. Without any increase in supply, they have simply poured petrol on the demand fire in Australia, and it is little wonder that the median price of a house in Australia is now some $860,000, or more than eight times the median household. It takes 11 years on an average wage to save a deposit for a home. This government's idea, instead, is that having inflated housing prices with their five per cent scheme—people are now expected to take on a 95 per cent mortgage with interest rates only going up and up and up, with their inflation fuelled spending spree continuing unabated. The scheme's capped at some 10,000 places a year, and less than 300 purchases have been completed nationally, and that leaves Australians to co-own their house with the government. It's effectively having the government as a shareholder in your own home, while you pay all of the maintenance and upgrade costs yourself. It's not structural reform; it is just simply rationed assistance in a truly broken system.

Supply targets, as I said, are continually being missed, because this government claims it's building more homes—we all understand that it's actually the private sector that builds homes in Australia. We need some 240,000 of them every year to keep up with population growth. Under the National Housing Accord, we're already tens of thousands of homes behind schedule and going backwards by some 30,000 a year. At the current rate, we are simply going to make this problem worse. Not one state or territory across the entire country is on track to meet its housing targets. As I say, you can't live in a Labor media release. You have to live in the real world. The reality is that, in the real world, housing is more expensive, rentals are more scarce, and affordability is poorer.

The supply of housing can't be delivered in isolation, of course, because infrastructure is the missing link, and this government doesn't really have a plan to deal with it. The reality is that road networks, power, sewerage and water connection issues are leaving zoned, approved and otherwise fit-for-purpose development land sitting idle. We have growth corridors. We have developers ready to go. We have obviously huge demand for housing in Australia, and all that we are looking for is leadership from the government to provide the essential infrastructure that turns paddocks into suburban homes. It's one thing to announce housing targets and have glossy brochures, but, without the infrastructure to deliver them, that's all this will be: a glossy brochure. And it won't be restoring the dream of homeownership for Australians.

I love the way that the government likes to talk about 'government housing'. That's effectively what social and affordable housing is. It is state housing, and, unfortunately, some 640,000 Australians are languishing on a waiting list, looking for real action from this government, not more media releases.

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