Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

At the request of Senator McKim, I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The need for the government to rein in property investor tax breaks and to direct APRA to rein in record high investor lending, both of which are driving up house prices and out-competing first home buyers.

One-third of the most unaffordable cities to live in on Earth are in Australia. This is not the medal we want to be winning. The latest global housing affordability index lists five Australian capital cities in its top 15 least affordable—Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. When first home buyers spend their weekends getting outbid by property investors and when renters line the block for a chance to spend more than half their weekly income to keep a roof over their heads, this Labor government continues to hand out $181 billion in tax breaks for already wealthy property investors.

Over the last year, investor lending has increased by 12.3 per cent, while first home buyer lending has increased by less than one per cent. ABS data shows that $40 billion has been loaned to wealthy property investors in just three months. The system is rigged for investors, not for ordinary buyers, and, as a result, ownership rates for young people are plummeting. The government has the power to address this. It should direct the banking regulator, APRA, to rein in this record high investor lending so that first home buyers actually stand a chance.

APRA has done this before, and it worked. We saw house price growth stabilise in a way that we haven't for the last 30 years. The government should also scrap the $181 billion in tax perks that are given to landlords, which tip the scales massively in favour of wealthy property investors. Adding fuel to the absolute dumpster fire that is the housing crisis is Labor's five per cent deposit scheme. October 2025 saw the fastest increase in housing prices in more than two years. Coincidentally, that's also when Labor's five per cent deposit scheme kicked in.

The banks are loving it, though. Increased house prices and bigger debts means that they will make even more profits off of people's debt and people's pain. They were already on track to make $30 billion in profits this financial year. It is absolutely obscene. By refusing to tackle the root causes of the housing crisis, the tinkering around the edges from this gutless government has only inflated property prices further, locking even more people out of homeownership. Without urgent action, first home buyers don't stand a chance.

The major parties are in lockstep. They've created a system that makes the big banks and the property developers billions at the expense of a whole generation of young people. It shouldn't be easier to buy your fifth home than it is to buy your first, but, right now, that's what the case is. You should be able to buy a home on an average salary, but, right now, you can't.

These are not radical suggestions; they are common sense. The solutions already exist, and they work around the world. It starts with ending the special treatment for ultrawealthy property investors over first home buyers. We could cap and freeze rents and make sure that renters have real rights so that no-one has got to live in a mould ridden home without proper heating or cooling. We could actually build more public and affordable homes with a publicly owned property developer to build them at cost, not for profit. The housing crisis is no accident. It's been created by successive governments outsourcing to the private market, and the Greens will keep fighting to make sure that everyone is able to get and keep a roof over their heads.