Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Standing Committee on Tax and Revenue, I present the committee's report, incorporating a dissenting report, entitled The Australian dream: inquiry into housing affordability and supply in Australia, together with the minutes of proceedings.

Report made a parliamentary paper in accordance with standing order 39(e).

by leave—I will be brief in my comments, as I know the House has limited time. This report finds that housing ownership matters. It reduces wealth inequality, it creates democratic stability and it ensures better childhood outcomes, lower outcomes of violence and a whole lot of positive outcomes. It matters that people own their own homes.

Australia has a problem for two reasons: of our five capital cities, all five are in the 22 least affordable cities in the world; and we also have a situation where home ownership rates for Australians under the age of 40 are falling to levels not seen since 1911. Australia should have the most affordable housing in the world because we have some of the highest average weekly earnings in the world, we have the highest minimum wage in the world, and we have more usable land than any other continent in the world outside the penguins of the South Pole.

The reasons given for our unaffordable nature include investors, migrants, foreign buyers and the tax system. We refuse to deal with the underlying cause, which is supply. Until the states release more supply so there is more housing for more people, until local governments administer the planning system appropriately and properly, Australians will continue to have the most unaffordable housing in the world. I move:

That the House take note of the report.

Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

The debate is adjourned, and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.