Jennie George (Throsby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have previously raised in parliament, on behalf of the people I represent, concerns relating to the issue of housing affordability. I just want to make some comments about that matter following the budget and to commend the Minister for Housing for her efforts in addressing a major social and economic problem.

The 2006 census found that, in my region of the Illawarra, nearly 11,000 households were technically suffering from mortgage stress. That is not surprising, because, as we know from the figures, the average home now costs in the order of seven times the average annual wage, up from about four times a decade ago. On top of that, housing is becoming more expensive, with the average first home buyer mortgage more than doubling in the past decade, to an average of $228,000 at the start of the year.

Unfortunately, homeownership, which in the past has often been seen as a matter of security, is increasingly becoming a matter of stress for the 1.1 million families across Australia classified as being in housing stress. The flow-on of that means that people are now stuck in the rental trap and finding rental vacancies on the decrease and rents going through the roof. Surveys in my electorate of Throsby indicate that over 40 per cent of households who rent privately are in rental stress as well. After more than a decade of neglect by the coalition government, I am pleased that the Rudd Labor government has an ambitious housing policy agenda. That was reflected in the outlays in the recent budget.

Our goals are ambitious. There is not a silver bullet and we cannot resolve the problems overnight, but we have backed our commitments with a significant outlay in the order of $2.2 billion to address a range of supply- and demand-side issues. The measures include the first home saver accounts, which will be tax-effective mechanisms for saving for your first deposit, the National Rental Affordability Scheme, an audit of surplus Commonwealth land, the Housing Affordability Fund and the National Housing Supply Research Council, which will publish an annual report analysing the adequacy of construction and land supply. Obviously land supply is a major issue.

In my local area, great store is being placed on opening up land for housing in West Dapto and Shell Cove. In that regard, I have had discussions with my two local councils, urging them to apply in a competitive process to access funds under our $500 million Housing Affordability Fund, which addresses the two important cost components: infrastructure charges and levies and ‘holding costs’. I am hopeful that this fund, together with our investment in the new first home savers accounts, will make the dream of homeownership more achievable in the decades ahead. (Time expired)