Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was delighted on Sunday to attend the Oakleigh Glendi in Melbourne with the opposition leader the Hon. Sussan Ley MP and our wonderful Greek Australian community. Held over two days the festival attracted an extraordinary 40,000 attendees. I pay tribute to all of the organisers, sponsors and volunteers. I'd like to pay special tribute to Oakleigh Grammar, who were integral to the event; to Father Stavros Kakavas, parish priest and school chaplain; to Chris Damatopoulos, the board chair and the driving force behind making the Oakleigh Glendi such a successful and important event; and to all the other board members.

I'd also like to pay tribute to the wonderful principal, Mark Robertson. People spoke so highly of the principal and how important he's been to the success of Oakleigh Grammar. He said on the day that he was a very proud principal, and he should be a very proud principal. He should be proud of the flag-bearers from Oakleigh Grammar, proud of the wonderful band from Oakleigh Grammar and proud of the choir, who did an amazing job, from Oakleigh Grammar. It is just an outstanding school community. Well done to everyone involved with the festival.

It should be noted that the festival was held in part to commemorate 28 October, which is Ohi Day, a very important day for our Greek Australian community. On 28 October 1940, Greece courageously responded to a demand from the Italian fascist Benito Mussolini to invade Greece and to occupy strategic parts of Greece. Greece said no and Greece heroically resisted over quite a number of months. Indeed, it was only the intervention of Nazi Germany that led to Greece's fall. It should also be remembered and noted that there were approximately 17,000 Australians who fought shoulder to shoulder with their Greek brothers in the name of freedom and democracy in Greece. That is a bond which can never, ever be broken.

A very disturbing report was released over the weekend by Digital Finance Analytics that showed 43.2 per cent of mortgage holders in my home state of Queensland suffering from mortgage stress. What does that mean? I want to quote to you from the data scientist and analyst Martin North from the Digital Finance Analytics organisation. He painted a chilling picture of the consequence of that mortgage stress. According to an article:

"(Mortgage) stress shows households have cash flow pressure, so they cut back on spending, and hunker down, leading to lower economic activity. If this continues some people may eventually default on their mortgage, but this process takes a long time, and banks try to 'extend and pretend' by extending loan terms or offering interest only," he explained.

"(It also means) more people (are) working more jobs, more social pressure …

In the list of suburbs across Australia, it was quite extraordinary to see in Queensland two of the top four suburbs for mortgage stress in my home state of Queensland are in the region where my office is located in the greater Ipswich region. Pine Mountain is, in fact, ranked No. 2 in Queensland for mortgage stress and 11 in the whole of Australia. The mortgage stress level is rated at 90.9 per cent. In Ipswich, the mortgage stress level is rated at 70 .9 per cent. It's ranked No. 4 in Queensland and No. 22 across the whole of Australia. In Pine Mountain and Ipswich there are so many Queenslanders doing it tough at the moment under mortgage stress. In that context, we should know that inflation surged to 3.2 per cent on an annualised basis last week, well above expectations and outside the RBA's target range of two to three per cent. As Digital Finance Analytics said, even a 50 basis point cut to interest rates wouldn't ease the pressure on those households under mortgage stress.

My thoughts are with the people of Ipswich at this point in time suffering mortgage stress.

Senate adjourned at 20:18