Julia Irwin (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When the Prime Minister says that Australian working families have never been better off, he must be looking at the view from his rent-free home at Kirribilli House, because the reality on the ground in Western Sydney is a long way from the rosy picture of Australian families living the dream of homeownership behind the white picket fence. For many that dream has become a nightmare. After nine interest rate rises and falling property values, many Western Sydney residents who took out mortgages during this government’s time in office are feeling the pinch. If they took the Liberal Party’s commitment at the 2004 election to keep interest rates at record lows, they were gravely misled. And, while the Prime Minister tries to distance himself from that promise, he is not fooling anyone. Even his own backbenchers still have the guts, or should I say the hide, to repeat that promise. Only last week, the member for Macquarie, a member who should know what is happening on the ground in Western Sydney, repeated that promise. In the matter of public importance discussion on 8 August the member for Macquarie told the House:

The promise that we would keep interest rates at record lows still stands.

However the member for Macquarie defines ‘record lows’, he cannot get around the fact that Australia has one of the highest levels of interest rates in the developed world, and he cannot get away from the fact that thousands of working families in Western Sydney are suffering from mortgage stress. What we are seeing is forced sales of homes. Forced sales of homes in Western Sydney is really just the tip of the iceberg. Many working families have seen the crunch coming and sold up while they still have some equity left in their home. Thousands of others have postponed or even given up their dream of homeownership and will look to the rental market to provide their home for years to come. The effect of that has been to drive up rents and to leave more and more families suffering rental stress. The effect of this in the Fowler electorate is very devastating. Fowler has one of the highest rates of rental housing in the country. For many years it has provided affordable private rental accommodation for new arrivals to Australia, but this government does not want to know about the problems faced by people setting out to establish their families in affordable housing.

Yesterday the Leader of the Opposition, and the next Prime Minister of this great country of Australia, announced Labor’s National Rental Affordability Scheme, giving 50,000 low- and middle-income families a 20 per cent rent cut, but the government does not even admit there is a problem. Instead of fresh thinking all we get from this government are stunts and gimmicks. They will not do a thing to ease the pressure on working families.

Two years ago the Prime Minister was telling us that no-one has ever complained to him about the rising value of their home. But to a generation of young Australians those rising values have locked them out of the housing market. As interest rates rise, homeownership has never been so far beyond the reach of many working families. Whether you rent or buy, housing costs now eat up more of the household budget than at any time in living memory, and all the Prime Minister can do is blame the states. It is not his fault. He only takes the credit when things go well, but he is like a used car salesman when things go wrong. He did not have his signature on the guarantee. When the promise to keep interest rates low was made, it was not he but the Liberal Party. Someone should tell the member for Macquarie, and the Prime Minister should check the Liberal Party’s website. He might notice that he is still the leader of the Liberal Party. (Time expired)