Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Hanson for the question. In this budget, the government has extended the ban on foreign purchases of existing homes to 2029. That is included in the budget paper. That is part of our response to pressures in the housing market and to make sure that Australians aren't competing with foreign buyers for those properties.

It is also interesting to note that foreign buyer levels peaked under the Liberals in 2017-2018, when almost 8½ thousand properties were purchased by foreign buyers. This was down by over two-thirds, from 1.8 per cent of buyers to just 0.5 per cent of buyers, after our foreign buyer ban started in 2025. We have been responding to the issues, making sure that every lever available to us is being used to ensure that housing is affordable and accessible to the Australian community.

In relation to the question on compliance, I don't have any further information to provide other than that I know from my work at estimates—where One Nation raises this issue every hearing—that the Treasury and the ATO respond to questions about the nature of the compliance work that they do to ensure and verify that those arrangements are working properly.