Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the community that I represent in Sydney's south-eastern suburbs, housing affordability is now more topical than the weather. It is the No. 1 issue in our community. The cost of homes in suburbs such as Maroubra, Clovelly, Randwick and Kensington has skyrocketed. In the past three years, for example, property prices have increased by 44 per cent in Botany, 37 per cent in Coogee and a whopping 46 per cent in Malabar. That is not to say that they were cheap three years ago, because they were not. They have increased dramatically in the last three years, but they were quite expensive three years ago as well. In my community, the dream of owning your own home for many, including young people who have grown up locally and now want to buy a home and raise their own families locally, has become a nightmare.

As a result, not a week goes by when I do not get a complaint from a constituent about the cost of housing in our community and their anxiety about whether or not they will be able to continue to live in the community and, importantly, whether or not their kids will be able to afford to buy a house in the community that they grew up in, around their family networks and their friends. Recently I met with a Botany resident, Elizabeth Mansour. She wrote to me a very touching email that I think explains the plight of young people in our community. She wrote:

I am a 26-year-old currently residing in Botany with my family.

You are probably thinking I am a bit too old to still be living at home but the reality is, as much as I would love to move out, I simply can't afford it.

Upon completing my degree in 2014 I hoped that I would have enough money to purchase a unit or townhouse close to my family, work for a few years and save up enough so that when I returned to part-time work to complete my second degree I would be able to cover my mortgage and other expenses with no issue.

This had been my dream … since I was 8 or 9. Sadly, when the time came I did the maths and there was no way that would be possible. I quickly learnt I would not even be able to survive, not even on a full-time salary.

These are the words of a responsible young woman who is being prevented from making wise financial decisions and achieving dreams she has held since her childhood.

Another constituent recently wrote to me with this story:

I visited the new development at Pagewood last weekend in my futile search for something for my daughter.

1 bedroom apartments start at $750,000 … There is no way our kids can get in to this market and get a roof over their heads

On housing affordability, this government has completely failed Australians and in particular young first home buyers, who are desperately trying to break their way into the housing market. The government's latest efforts on housing affordability have been a dismal failure. Their failure is typified by the announcement at the recent budget about the use of superannuation funds to save for a deposit. The only thing this measure will achieve is further contributing to rising housing prices and keeping that elusive first property purchase out of reach for so many Australians. They continue to ignore the fact that massive tax concessions—the largest tax concessions in the world for property investors—exist here in Australia, and it is an unlevel playing field. First home buyers simply cannot compete when they go to auctions on the weekend. They are competing against people who get a handout from the government in the form of a tax concession and who may be negatively gearing their sixth or seventh investment property. It demonstrates just how out of touch this government is. If you are not restricting negative gearing and reducing the capital gains tax discount on selling a property, you are not serious about housing affordability and you are not serious about helping young Australians.

By contrast, Labor is serious about this issue and we are tackling housing affordability. We will do this by reforming negative gearing, restricting negative gearing to new properties and halving the capital gains tax discount. We will also introduce support for a uniform vacant properties tax across all major cities, limit direct borrowing by self-managed super funds in investment properties, increase foreign investor fees and penalties, establish a bond aggregator to increase investment in affordable housing, boost homelessness support for vulnerable Australians, and get better results from the National Rental Affordability Scheme and National Housing Affordability Agreement. That is a party that is serious about housing affordability. That is a party that is listening to people like Elizabeth Mansour.