Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Industry, Infrastructure and Industrial Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We are currently experiencing a housing affordability crisis. The Howard government ignored the skills crisis for 10 years, so I am hoping, and I am begging, that the government does not do the same and ignore the housing crisis that we are experiencing today. Do not ignore it. Do not let this go on for another 10 years. One of the biggest issues that affects families today, especially young people, is being able to afford to stay in a home and pay a mortgage or even pay rent because prices and the cost of living now are so high.

The most basic need in life of course is having the security of a home. That security of having a roof over their head is important for families, and it is important for young people to feel safe and secure so they can afford to have a home. Under this government, buying a house today is almost impossible for young people. Today, under this government, if you do not already own a house, it is likely that you will not be able to afford to buy one—

Joanna Gash (Gilmore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I remember 16 per cent and 17 per cent—

Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Industry, Infrastructure and Industrial Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If the government wants to talk about interest rates, I could easily get into that, but I do not have time today with the few short minutes I have. Instead of just criticising the government, what I want to do today—unlike what the federal government does, which is to just blame the states for absolutely everything—is to say to the government that there is something that it can do: it can put the foot back on the accelerator and make housing affordable once again.

I want to commend the work done in Victoria by Senator Kim Carr, shadow minister for housing, urban development and local government and territories. Labor wants a minister for housing appointed. Unless we focus on this issue, we will never be able to deal with it. I agree that we need to develop a national settlement strategy at all levels of government. Federal government must work with the states not against the states and must not continually criticise the states. We need to work with local government as well. It is particularly important at this time when local government has so much impact on housing developments and infrastructure at a local level. We also need to boost the number of skilled tradespeople so we can build homes and have enough people with the skills required to construct the massive amount of homes that we need.

We need a government that is prepared to invest in the productive capacity of the economy. We actually need to address those issues—housing affordability and skills. We need the examination of a government backed scheme, a shared equity scheme, that would enable hardworking young families who do not own a home today to have that start, that little boost, to get them into homeownership for the very first time. This generation could be the first generation in Australian history that, by the actions of a federal government, has been locked out of homeownership forever. This is the real tragedy of what is taking place. Unless the federal government concentrates on this issue, it will never be fixed. (Time expired)