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

I move:

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

The urgent need for the Treasurer to intervene and announce an end to property investor tax breaks, in order to cool runaway housing costs and, with housing costs the biggest contributor to the inflation spike, help mortgage holders and renters by reducing the likelihood of a series of interest rate rises.

In the face of a housing crisis that has locked out an entire generation from homeownership, Labor is choosing to tinker around the edges while locking in policies that make the problem worse. And it is a choice. While you're getting smashed by unlimited rent increases, massive mortgage repayments and today a rate rise, every year Labor is handing $12.3 billion to landlords. We live in one of the wealthiest countries on earth. Everyone should be able to afford a home to own or to rent comfortably. Instead our government is choosing to waste billions on property investor tax perks, choosing to allow unlimited rent increases, choosing to allow the RBA to use interest rate rises as a hammer against mortgage holders and choosing to allow the big bank profits to soar even more instead of choosing to help people.

Politics should work for everyday people, but right now it doesn't. Both major parties are backing the profits of the banks and the ultrawealthy instead of doing what's necessary to make sure that young people can buy a home. There are seven million renters in this country, and millions of them would like to be homeowners. Everyone I know has a story about a young person being locked out. Our view, as the Greens, is that we should be backing them—to hell with the profits of the big banks. Australians have just copped an interest rate hike today because inflation has spiked. Why? Because the government hasn't done enough to deal with rising house prices and corporate price gouging.

If you're a mortgage holder or a renter, you're now being hit to solve the government's inflation problem. It shouldn't be on people to solve the government's inflation problem. Anyone with a mortgage will be giving even more every month to the big banks. Renters are going to cop it, as investors will pass on rate rises. It is hard enough right now to get ahead. You shouldn't be doing it even harder. It shouldn't be on you. Labor could put an end to negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts, they could build more public and affordable homes, they could freeze and cap rents, and they could regulate the banks to deliver fairer, lower mortgages. Instead they're choosing to tinker around the edges of the housing crisis, and their policies are locking in price rises and locking out an entire generation from homeownership. It's not fair, and they need to fix it.