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

Listening to the government speakers today, you'd think that under the Albanese government renting is fairer, homeownership is more affordable and, indeed, life is better for Australians. The reality couldn't be further from the truth. For all their talk about how many houses the government's building, you'd almost think that Minister O'Neil's down on a building site in high vis, with her steel caps on, slinging some bricks around. But the reality is that dwelling completions are now running at 170,000 homes a year—compared to more than 200,000 homes a year under the coalition. So less housing stock is being built in Australia. At the same time, under the well commented on migration surge, we've had epic demand for new homes in Australia.

Their answer was the National Housing Accord. But, in the time the Albanese government's been in office, Australia's population has grown by 1.6 million people, creating demand for some 640,000 additional dwellings. So we've got fewer dwellings being built and more people coming to Australia, yet somehow it is a galloping shock to the government that house prices are through the roof and rents are skyrocketing at the same time.

The government's own advisory body has belled the cat and said that the government's going to miss its own target by 60,000 homes. So 60,000 homes is the shortfall that we're talking about. But, again, if you read the media releases, this is all great. Renting is more affordable, homeownership is within reach and life is great.

Housing can't be delivered in isolation. It depends on infrastructure to unlock new land for development. And that is what we are missing in this debate. Across declared growth corridors, with zone structure plans in place, roads are inadequate or missing, and power and water connections are delayed. Indeed, in my own state of Western Australia it is not uncommon to wait 18 months for a power connection for new developments whilst infrastructure in our community—sewerage, schools, transport links and health care—is under incredible strain. So approved developments are not proceeding to the construction of new homes because the enabling infrastructure simply isn't there.

The Housing Australia Future Fund has delivered 895 homes, which is less than 0.2 per cent of the annual housing stock required. At that rate alone it would take 60 years to clear the existing waiting list for government housing. The average cost per dwelling under the fund exceeds some $600,000, and 70 per cent of the projects are in planning or procurement stages. They're not even at the point where Minister O'Neil, in her high vis with her steel caps on, could carry some bricks around the building site. I just find it staggering that, when Australians are doing it so tough, those on the government benches are so keen to look at them down the barrel of a camera and say, 'You've never had it better.'

These challenges in the housing market weren't caused by tax settings, let's be clear. Tax arrangements didn't change magically in the last couple of years when house prices started to skyrocket just as demand went through the roof and construction collapsed. Indeed, interest deductibility has been a thing since 1936, and it was, of course, the Labor government in the 1980s that introduced the capital gains tax in 1985. If you think about it, before 1985, there was no capital gain that could be taxed, meaning that property investors somehow 'never had it better', and yet we didn't have a housing crisis then. Tax settings did not cause this housing crisis, but rather the failure to manage Australia's migration and binding our housing and construction sector up with new levels of red tape regulation and restriction has created the perfect storm, making housing less affordable, less available and less within reach for young Australians than ever before. Again, you can't live in a Labor media release. You have to live in the real world. The reality is that house prices are skyrocketing, rents are through the roof, availability is through the floor, and this government is continuing to pump out media releases not new housing.

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