Sean Edwards (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to speak briefly on report No. 21 on affordable housing. It is good that Senator McLucas is in the chamber. She was involved heavily in this inquiry. I will speak about that later. This is the report of the Senate Economic References Committee inquiry into affordable housing. Housing has an incomparable role in the Australian economy because housing constitutes most people's single biggest asset and the largest purchase most of us will embark upon in our lifetimes. The problem of affordable housing and homelessness is vitally important to the government also because it is vitally important to all Australians. I accept that this still remains a problem for all us. Access to affordable housing is vital for our society and, indeed, any society—we have all travelled and seen the various levels of housing. I saw and inquired into affordable housing when I was on a recent trip to Singapore. I looked at the way the government there accesses superannuation and provides it for housing. That is very interesting and it has obviously provoked the recent press reports about accessing superannuation. So I have looked at this. It is vital for an individual to have affordable housing, and I know it is a hot topic now. And it is obviously vital for family happiness and the cohesion of any society.

The committee was provided with a high-quality submissions and evidence at all of the hearings I was involved in. The competitiveness of the housing sector down the east coast is something of a problem. It is not so much a problem in my and Senator Ruston's home state of South Australia, though I must say that it is still a problem. The comprehensiveness of the evidence presented to the committee, as well as what is included in this report, reflects the efforts of those participants. I thank the secretariat for their hard work during such a long-running inquiry. I would like to acknowledge Senator McLucas's dedication to the issue and to the inquiry in particular. You approached this in a heartfelt and genuine way, and I certainly appreciated working with you in the time I was on that references committee. Thank you.

Government senators have considered the committee's recommendations in good faith and judged those recommendations against their stated goal of improved housing affordability. The government has clearly expressed a plan to reduce red tape, to reduce the regulatory burden, for individuals, businesses and community organisations. I do not think it is a secret to anybody in this chamber or to anybody listening that we went to an election in 2013 looking for red-tape reductions. Unfortunately, we cannot reach into the state governments, but clearly there is an issue there. I urge state governments to have a look at their planning regulations and the way in which they go about releasing land in an effort to provide that relief to affordable housing.

As I said, we have an agenda, clearly expressed, to reduce that red tape and the regulatory burden for individuals, businesses and community organisations. Cutting existing red tape and limiting the flow of unnecessary regulation is a high priority and has been considered in analysing the recommendations in the report. However, in the view of coalition senators, many of the report's recommendation simply do not constitute the best responses to the housing affordability challenge. It is the view of coalition senators that the recommendations will not address many of the problems the report itself identifies. Labor's recommendations, including implementation of an additional ministerial council, statutory bodies and special policy units, as well as the instigation of a whole new Senate inquiry, simply will not help first home buyers to buy houses. Labor's recommendations would only help Labor's efforts in making political mileage out of an issue on which the government is already hard at work.

The Commonwealth government's reform of the federation white paper will specifically address housing assistance and homelessness. The white paper process seeks to complement and, I emphasise, not duplicate the analysis provided in a number of other reviews that more fully address broader housing affordability pressures. Specific reform proposals across the range of government activities, including housing and homelessness, will be identified in the green paper which, I believe, it is due to be released now. The government has a clear approach to regulation and to reducing the regulatory burden for individuals, businesses and community organisations.

Labor's report largely fails in its pursuit of housing affordability answers. We are after the answers. We are all seeking that. I genuinely believe that.

Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Get a good job; get good pay!

Sean Edwards (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do not need anything from you, Senator Cameron, through you, Mr President. Just don't. Meanwhile, the government is actively solving this problem on this basis: the coalition senators support eight of the recommendations within the report. Through you, Mr President, I am sorry, Senator McLucas, that we could not have a unanimous report. I know that that was your wish. I looked at it very hard and long in terms of those wishes. But, in light of the red-tape issues, we felt that we had to put the additional comments in that we did.