David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Treasurer, Minister Gallagher. Minister, you would have seen analysis released by ACOSS finding that the federal government is spending more on tax breaks for property investors than on social housing, homelessness services and rent assistance combined. Will you commit to sensible reforms to property tax concessions in the upcoming federal budget that would limit the number of investment properties that can be negatively geared and use the capital gains tax discount to actually incentivise new supply?

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

Our tax and housing policies haven't changed.

Andrew Bragg (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Housing and Homelessness) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Maybe they should.

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

Senator Bragg, you've opposed and voted against all of the housing measures that we have brought to this chamber to improve housing affordability and access to housing for Australians, so you have no credibility on housing or housing policy at all.

Senator Pocock's question relates to analysis that ACOSS have done. The government works closely with ACOSS across a number of portfolios. I engage with ACOSS as well. We will always work with organisations, particularly when their focus is on driving fairness across the Australian economy. We've done a number of things to improve housing affordability and access to housing and housing security since coming to government, including back-to-back increases in rent assistance. We've also built 5,000 social and affordable homes. There are another 25,000 in planning or construction. Under the Housing Australia Future Fund we've got more housing being announced right around the country. I see that the Minister for Housing is constantly on housing sites or working with housing providers.

As I said at the beginning, our policies in relation to this haven't changed. We remain focused on delivering the commitments we took to the last election, which were to build and drive supply of housing across the country as a way of improving affordability and access to housing for all Australians.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Pocock, first supplementary?

David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister, the ACT is the only jurisdiction not to have a dedicated youth homelessness shelter. In 2024-25, 392 young Canberrans came to homelessness services in need of long-term housing, and only 28 were provided with housing. How can the government afford to subsidise someone's seventh investment property but can't afford to house a 15-year-old with nowhere else safe to go?

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

The Commonwealth's responsibility through the housing and homelessness agreement is to provide funding for services that are funded and managed through the ACT government, and we have—

Look, when you were in government, Senator Ruston, that government did nothing at all on housing. Whether it be social housing, homelessness funding, building housing or whatever, it had nothing to do with the government.

Opposition senators interjecting—

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I remind those on my left that this is Senator Pocock's question, and your interjections are disorderly and disrespectful. Minister, please continue.

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

We have come to the housing issue, and we have looked at every part of the housing spectrum. Our investment is 20 times what the previous government spent over an entire decade. Actually listen to that, Senator Ruston. You built 373 social and affordable homes in nine years, and we are on target for 55,000.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Pocock, second supplementary?

David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister, I commend the government's investments in housing, and I note your reference to the Housing Australia Future Fund, but the fact remains that, due to the low rate of youth allowance, young people are being excluded from the new social housing being provided under the Housing Australia Future Fund. To the broader question about our system that is subsidising the one per cent of Australians who own 25 per cent of investment properties while not ensuring young people can have access to social housing, how can your government think that is an acceptable status quo?

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

Well, we are investing in social housing. That's what we're doing. We are looking at every single way we can make housing more affordable and more accessible, whether you're someone who is homeless and all the way to homeownership. If you look at every intervention we are making across the board, the Housing Australia Future Fund is one aspect of that. The social and affordable homes that we're building with the states and territories are another. The access to five per cent deposits is another way of doing it. Working with the housing sector is another way of doing it.

Andrew Bragg (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Housing and Homelessness) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You're just inflating prices!

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

Those opposite have no credibility on this. You can interject as much as you like, but the reality is you didn't have a housing minister, you didn't work with the states and territories, and you didn't invest in housing—just over 300 houses in nine years.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister Wong?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Could you call Senator Bragg to order, please.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have called Senator Bragg to order. I have reminded the opposition that this was Senator Pocock's question. Senator Bragg, perhaps in the eight seconds that are left, you could just be quiet.

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

We look forward to working with any senator who is genuinely interested in the housing issue to continue to improve affordability and access to housing in this country.

Sean Bell (NSW, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Treasurer, Senator Gallagher. Under Labor, homes are more expensive and harder to find, yet foreign owners are allowed to dodge the vacancy rules and keep thousands of ghost homes off market while Australians struggle to find a home for their families. Documents obtained by One Nation under freedom of information expose Labor's failure to enforce foreign homeownership rules. According to the government records, there are at least 50,000 foreign owned ghost homes across Australia. Worse still, the Treasurer has admitted in writing that foreign owners are evading the rules, with 83 per cent or more not lodging compulsory vacancy reports with the ATO. Minister, why has the Albanese Labor government allowed thousands of foreign owned ghost homes to go unpoliced and unpunished in the middle of a housing crisis while Australian families suffer?

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

Thank you for the question, Senator Bell. We have actually banned foreign buyers from buying existing homes, and we have a number of other responses in relation to immigration and ownership of housing, or foreign ownership of housing, that the relevant ministers are managing right now. Every time this issue is raised at estimates—and it has been raised by Senator Roberts and others—the explanation, advice and evidence from Treasury is that this is something they watch carefully and closely and that there are, as you say, rules around it and that it forms a very, very small part of the overall homeownership arrangements in this country. I can't verify the data or the information you've used in your question, but my advice is that foreign investors make up 0.8 per cent of new and established dwellings purchased transactions in the last data I have, which is in the 2023-24 year. If you look at numbers, that is just over 4,000 transactions out of a total of 538,861 transactions. That is the advice from the ATO. If there is anything further I can provide in relation to the substance of your question, I will endeavour to do so.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Bell, first supplementary?

Sean Bell (NSW, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

(—) (): I'm happy to also assist in providing some correspondence between Senator Hanson and the Treasurer in relation to this. Off these figures, there are up to $8 billion in potential fines that have not been prosecuted by the Albanese Labor government on this topic. Minister, can you advise the Senate again how many homes in Australia are owned by foreigners, and, in the last financial year and given the Treasurer now admits foreign owners are evading vacancy rules, will the minister advise the Senate how many fines— (Time expired)

Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sit down!

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Ayres! That was seriously rude. Minister Gallagher.

Honourable senators interjecting—

Order! The chamber has obviously not heard that I did call the minister to answer, but there's so much chatter across the chamber that you didn't hear and therefore you continued to interject. Minister Gallagher.

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

There are rules around foreign investment in residential property, and the government expects those rules to be followed and enforced. As I said, based on the latest data I have, foreign investors account for approximately 0.8 per cent of property transactions of new and established dwelling purchases in Australia and total foreign investment in residential real estate has significantly dropped since its peak in 2015-16. In 2023-24, the ATO's residential real estate compliance investigations identified 688 cases for investigation, 602 were completed, and found that 141 properties were in breach and 66 of these resulted in divestment.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Bell, second supplementary?

Sean Bell (NSW, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister, Australians need more housing, but Labor's weak enforcement of protection protects thousands of these foreign-owned ghost homes instead of Australian families. Will Labor put all Australians first and adopt One Nation's permanent ban on foreign purchases of Australian homes, not just new homes, or will you keep propping up a loophole-ridden system that locks Australian families out of homeownership?

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

():  I don't want to start my answer with a question, but I would put a similar question to One Nation, which is: would you support all of the housing investments that we've brought to this chamber to actually drive housing supply so that the people you represent, whether it's the Housing Australia Future Fund, social and affordable housing, rent assistance or any of that—every single measure that we have brought to this chamber to get support to drive an increase in housing supply, which is the single best thing we can do to increase access and affordable housing in this country, my memory is that One Nation has voted against it.

In relation to foreign investment, we have tightened the rules. There is compliance action underway. It forms a very small part of the residential housing market—0.8 per cent.

Senator Bell interjecting—

Senator Bell, we could do a lot more together if you voted for some of the measures that we've brought here.