Ruth Webber (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Scullion, the Minister representing the Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. Is the minister aware of a report released yesterday that says the number of Australian households enduring mortgage stress will rise above 600,000 in coming months? Doesn’t the Australian mortgage industry report by Fujitsu and JPMorgan also find that 113,000 families may be forced to give up their homes because of mortgage stress? Doesn’t the report cite rising interest rates as the main reason for mortgage stress and conclude that young families in the outer suburbs will be particularly hard hit? Don’t these findings, which show that record numbers of families are losing their homes, reveal the impact of the government’s broken promise to families that it would ‘keep interest rates at record lows’?