Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Community Services) Share this | Hansard source

As I rose, my colleague Senator Johnston noted that those figures are nonsensical. I would have to agree with him. I think you must be quoting from some articles by political correspondent Steve Lewis. On one occasion, in one article, he quoted it as ALP research—hardly what we would call reliable in this environment. In the other article, in the Advertiser, he referred to it more accurately as alarming—and alarming I think it is. Now we have the Australian Labor Party providing their own research that indexes the amount of money that people earn against the amount of money people may spend on a house. So the outrageous headlines are: ‘$61,000 short! Can’t possibly afford to buy a house. Can’t possibly afford payments.’

Perhaps we should look for some fairly reliable facts. The Reserve Bank has indicated that one-quarter of owner-occupier borrowings are more than a year ahead on their scheduled mortgage repayments. In other words, 25 per cent of people are doing so well that they have paid a year in advance of their mortgage repayments. Further, 50 per cent of people who are paying off their mortgage at the moment are more than one month ahead in their repayments. There was an article in the Australian on 27 July 2007 that said:

The Reserve Bank estimates that less than 1 per cent of all home borrower households are more than 90 days behind on their repayments ...

That is right: less than one per cent. So there is no point in pulling out some sort of weird ALP driven data that means absolutely nothing. It is all about fearmongering. What about providing the Australian public with a few facts?

There are some real issues in terms of housing affordability. As I said in this place the other day, if you are buying a $300,000 home in New South Wales, you will be providing $8,990 to the New South Wales state government coffers—to the Labor Party. If those opposite want to do something about housing affordability generally, they should get on to their state and territory colleagues and say: ‘Stop the love affair with money. Stop the love affair with taxes. Start looking after the constituents.’ It is not rocket science. Buying a $300,000 home can be very difficult for people in New South Wales. Having that $8,990 would be a welcome relief for the taxpayers of New South Wales.