Barbara Pocock (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of the answers given to Senator Waters regarding the deeply unfair billion-dollar tax breaks for wealthy property hoarders. Reforming the capital gains tax discount is obvious. It's long overdue, and a growing number of people in our country know this is true. All of Australia's significant economists get it. They want to see a change. Unions support it. Working people understand it. Welfare groups see it as an urgent reform required for fairness in our community. It's supported by many people in this parliament, including many on the Labor side of politics. Yet, instead of acting to make housing more affordable, Labor is choosing policies that turbocharge housing prices. Unbelievably, they are making things worse.

They're handing out obscene tax breaks to people buying their 50th, 60th or 70th investment property. No wonder homeownership rates for young people are falling. No wonder so many young people are so depressed at their prospects of getting housing security. Labor is prioritising wealthy property investors over renters. They're doing it over the interests of so many people who find themselves catapulted into homelessness, and they're doing it over the interests of people who are facing increasing mortgage stress. Labor is spending more on those tax breaks for wealthy housing investors than on social housing, homelessness and rent assistance combined. Let that sink in. That's about priorities, and they're all wrong on the Labor side of politics.

The Labor government is giving more support to making housing unaffordable, especially for our young people. Meanwhile, Australians are working harder than ever and still falling behind. And, yes, real wages are falling. Things are going to get worse for a long time before they get better. Rents keep going up. First home buyers are locked out. The cost of living is eating away at the chances to get those savings that young people are seeking to get into the housing market. Mortgage stress is the norm, not the exception. It's Labor's decision to give $181 billion over a 10-year period to wealthy property investors, making housing more unaffordable. They're not dealing with the crisis that too many Australians are facing every day.

Question agreed to.