Kerrynne Liddle (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care) | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of all coalition questions.

It is dishonest and delusional to suggest that the housing market is doing well under Labor, that they're fixing housing in Australia. The evidence says different, and you're not fooling anyone who's out there in the market currently. Westpac mortgage applications fell 20 per cent. Investor housing credit growth is forecast to drop from 9.1 per cent this year to 4.4 per cent by 2028, driven by higher rates and Labor's policy changes. Auction clearance rates for the week finishing 1 August were 46.7 per cent in Adelaide, my home state. That's down from 74.5 per cent in the same week last year. That's not an improvement; that's going backwards. House prices must become more affordable for young Australians, but the answer isn't to crash the family home—it's lowering inflation, lowering rates, raising real wages, providing more homes and more opportunity, and having less spending by those opposite.

A housing minister floating a 10 to 20 per cent price correction is not a housing plan; it's a warning to every family with a mortgage and every young Australian eyeing the market. You're not helping first home buyers. It's smashing their confidence, hitting investment, pushing up rents, building fewer homes and making it harder for them to get ahead not just in the home purchase but in saving for the home too. The only things that Labor is actually building are excuses.

Labor's toxic taxes have acted like a wrecking ball on the housing market. More borrowing capacity for first home buyers doesn't mean more affordability. It means higher repayments for life and higher prices. You've brought in 1.4 million people, roughly the population of Adelaide, with 90,000 more planned to arrive in the next two years, stoking demand while housing supply shrinks. You're not building the houses that you said you would build in the budget. You're building fewer homes—35,000 fewer.

What about rents? On page 159, you said:

The reforms are likely to have a small impact on rents, with an expected increase of less than $2 per week …

That's not what's actually happening. In places like Sydney, independent economists estimate that rents could rise by up to $160 a week and by $130 a week in Melbourne. When investment is driven out of the rental market, landlords pass on the costs. Fewer rentals mean fewer and higher rents. I don't understand why Labor doesn't get that. It's economics 101. It's pretty simple. When you don't build the houses, when you bring in more people, when you make it more costly to buy that house—because the cost of living continues to go through the roof, and, with that, interest rates—and when the cost of servicing that mortgage continues to remain high, you're not being affected positively; you're being affected negatively. That's the impact on housing under Labor. That's the impact on all Australians. You're leaving people behind. (Time expired)

Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

I also rise to take note of answers. Listening to those opposite on housing, you would think that they had just discovered the housing crisis yesterday. For years under their watch, house prices ran away from wages. They watched younger Australians get locked out of homeownership. They watched investors enter auctions with tax advantages that a young couple trying to buy their first home simply did not have. Their answer was always the same: do nothing.

Now that a Labor government has actually changed the system, suddenly the Liberals, the Nationals and One Nation have discovered an interest in housing. They're very good at defending the status quo. They are very good at finding something to complain about, but they are not very good at explaining how a young Australian is supposed to buy their first home under the system they want to protect. We make no apologies for backing first home buyers.

For 25 years, house prices grew at around twice the rate of incomes. That was not sustainable. So we have reformed negative gearing and capital gains tax because the system needed to be fairer. Treasury modelling shows that these changes will help about 75,000 more Australians move from renting into owning their own home. This is what this debate should actually be about. We are building more homes and levelling the playing field for first home buyers. Too many Australians, as I've said, were feeling that housing was stacked against them, especially young Australians.

We've built the most ambitious housing agenda in generations, and we're building on this plan. This plan that this government has implemented and is, as I've said, the most ambitious housing agenda in generations is not supported by those opposite. They don't come in here and support more housing. They vote against it. They voted against the government's plan. We know that the long-term fix for housing is to build more homes. That's why we have this ambitious national target of 1.2 million new homes. We're delivering 55,000 social and affordable rental homes. We're building 100,000 homes reserved for first home buyers. To unlock these homes, we're training more tradies, building more infrastructure, cutting red tape, including pausing the National Construction Code, and fast-tracking environmental approvals. In the 2026-27 budget alone, we invested a further $2 billion in enabling infrastructure to unlock 65,000 new homes. We're taking more action to speed up housing approvals and cut red tape to unlock tens of thousands more homes.

This is a debate about supporting a government that is supporting Australians to get into their own homes or supporting an opposition who voted against them owning their own homes. (Time expired)

Alex Antic (SA, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

We heard this afternoon Senator Canavan make the observation that Westpac now say that new home loan applications have fallen 20 per cent, while the National Australia Bank have reported a 15 per cent downturn in home loans. That in itself, under normal circumstances, would be a very alarming statistic. But, in this case, it's proof positive that this government has damaged confidence in the property market through its property taxes in a way that, certainly in the short term, may not be recoverable.

It doesn't really feel like there has never been a better time to be a first home buyer like Minister Plibersek has told us. In fact, it is, I think, actually even a broader problem than that which has been discussed here this afternoon. This is a government which has overseen some of the greatest cost spikes we have seen in recent times. This is not just about new home loan applications and listings on realestate.com. This is one of the most expensive environments for all Australians to operate in in living memory. That applies across the board. The war on energy, this ridiculous net zero target and the climate scam continue to be pushed out there. What see as a result of that are rising fuel prices. You can't blame it all on the Strait of Hormuz. You can't blame it all on President Trump. Unfortunately, that's an undergraduate approach to what is really happening here.

The environment itself is just completely counterproductive to building homes. You have to get through all the state imposts, the development applications, the energy ratings, the local government approvals. Ask any person that's in the building game what they think about the current regulatory environment. That's the sort of thing that could be fixed with a snap of the fingers of this government. We've seen how they like to guillotine laws through when it suits them. They could fix this overnight.

Over the week ending 9 August, Cotality reported that the clearance rates are now 57 per cent in Sydney, 60.8 per cent in Melbourne and 38.1 per cent in Brisbane. This is not good news for the property market because of course this country is indelibly welded to that as an economic marker. We are all concerned about the affordability of housing, especially for young Australians. But the answer to fixing that is not crashing the economy, and that's what this is going to do. The answer to that problem is not to crash the family home. The answer actually is reducing the regulatory burden. It's reducing inflation. It's lowering interest rates. It's rising real wages.

We heard this afternoon this government heroically claim that the gender pay gap has improved for women in this country. But, at the same time, they've gone and made everything else exponentially more expensive. So, if that is correct, women are still paying more for everything. That's the sort of meatball economics that we get from this government.

Labor's not helping Australians. They're not helping first home buyers. They're smashing confidence. They're hitting investment. They're pushing up rents. They're building fewer homes and making it harder for young Australians to get ahead. You don't help young Australians into homes by making them and everyone else around them poorer in the process. It can only be done through a strong economy, through lower taxes and through cheaper energy, by the way, which is the thing that is completely missed in this equation. It can only come from a government that actually rewards hard work. That's the only way. That's the way this country was built, and that's the way we'll build it out of this housing crisis. (Time expired)

Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

It took me quite some time to dig through the questions that the opposition had in question time today to actually find something of substance. Out of the three questions that they got to ask the government today, only one of them was around economic policy. Since 2021, when I started in this place, it's actually been quite alarming to see how far they've shifted away from their roots. It took my colleague from Tasmania Senator Dowling, on his return to the Senate after a short absence, to bring us back to economic policy and talk about our AAA sovereign credit rating with the S&P Global report and to highlight some of the factors that Australians do care about. Australians absolutely care about the cost-of-living pressures and the work that the Albanese Labor government have been doing over the winter break, while some others opposite may have been having some time off.

We've been working hard. We've been looking into the paid prac that Senator McAllister talked to in great detail. There's also our record investment into Medicare and the difference that is making for all Australians to be able to see a GP for free. That is an amazing initiative. Minister McAllister commented that the minister had made the comment that Medicare was on its knees after a decade of neglect by those opposite. Not only that but there is the amazing work of our government and particularly our cabinet ministers in securing wage rises. We've heard from our government senators during question time, asking questions and extracting some of that information around the five wage rises that we've secured, particularly for aged-care nurses. As the previous chair of the community affairs committee, I know these are important workers in our economy. A big shout-out to the aged-care workers who do an amazing job looking after older Australians, making sure that there is stable and consistent care that our older Australians have access to. Paid prac is absolutely about ensuring that our students go from training and getting those skills right into employment.

Also in the report on our credit rating there was a reference to fuel security. I'm glad that Senator Antic opposite just mentioned that. It actually has a sentence in there praising the Albanese Labor government in shoring up its fuel security. I want to thank our cabinet ministers in particular: Minister Wong, Minister Farrell and Minister King in the other place, our resources minister who absolutely went out hard and did all of those things. It is absolutely crystal clear to us here on this side of the chamber who is backing in Australian workers. It is we in the Albanese Labor government who continue to work hard to ensure that Australians get to keep more of what they earn.

That is absolutely true when it comes to women. Just quickly on Senator Canavan's point about the gender pay gap and comparing apples with apples, as he puts it, his commentary is about how completely useless the gender pay gap is. Wow. Imagine that—not wanting to be ambitious and create opportunity for women in the economy to participate in higher paying jobs and calling that a hill of nonsense. (Time expired)

Ross Cadell (NSW, National Party, Shadow Minister for Water) | Link to this | Hansard source

The question today specifically around housing was quite an interesting one. While we hear lots of diversions and lots of thoughts about everything else going on in the country, let's talk about housing. The ANZ has predicted a 10.6 per cent drop, peak to trough, in housing values. To put that into some perspective, if you take the value of housing across Australia to be worth over $12 trillion, what this government is overseeing is the loss of almost $1.3 trillion in the wealth of Australians.

Everyone says: 'What's $1 trillion? I don't know what a trillion dollars is. What does it buy? What does it do?' Let me put it this way: every single Australian, from the newborn to those taking their last breath—everyone—will be $48,000 poorer because of these policies. And they say this is a good thing. The single best—

Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Not true!

Ross Cadell (NSW, National Party, Shadow Minister for Water) | Link to this | Hansard source

We hear 'Not true!' from the other side. We have the ANZ bank coming out and saying it's 10.6 per cent nationwide. In Sydney, in my home state—I'm from the Hunter—it's 14.5 per cent; it's even worse there. We have just wee'd away $1.3 trillion of Australian wealth because a government thought it was a good idea. What a great idea! Let's just throw $48,000 per person in the garbage and say, 'Oh, but that's going to make first-home buyers.'

They talk about the things they've done, such as a five per cent deposit for a new home buyer. Now, I know those over on the other side are not great with numbers, but if I put a five per cent deposit down—

Slade Brockman (WA, Deputy-President) | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Cox, you were heard in silence.

Ross Cadell (NSW, National Party, Shadow Minister for Water) | Link to this | Hansard source

If I put a five per cent deposit down and my property goes back 10.6 per cent, I'm 5.6 per cent underwater on my debt. I owe the bank more money than the property is worth by five per cent. That is what is happening here.

We never want to look at what actually happens; we want to talk about the spin and all of these things we're going through. We talk about the budget papers that say there will be a modest increase of $2 per year on rent. It's more like $2 per day on rent. With the way things are going, there are rent increases of $100 or $150 per week. This is what matters. That is what actually happens to the people around Australia.

We talked about the loan numbers coming out. For Westpac, there was a 20 per cent drop in loan applications. We're talking about NAB's 15 per cent drop in loan applications and the statement that they were only propped up by self-managed super funds getting in to beat these challenges. That was what was propping it up. You're seeing a collapse in the wealth of Australians who are getting to the end of their careers and have paid their taxes, paid their mortgages and done everything right. And what do we do? We strip wealth from them at the time they need it. When the No. 1 determinant of a healthy retirement is owning your own property, we are taking away that wealth because of decisions of this government.

And not only is there the attack on elderly Australians; let's get rid of the seniors health insurance rebate too. They've realised quickly that they've run out of their own money, the normal money; let's go after the money of the people who have done the right thing by Australia—they've got more because they've lived longer, they've earned more and they've done more. Those are the true facts of this government—if you've got it, we want it. We are becoming more socialist by the day. But we don't care about how we spend it; we just care about how we can get it.

So not only are we taxing the money you've got, doing all these things and spending it everywhere; we are now throwing away the value you put in your housing, and $48,000 per person will be the result of a 10.6 per cent drop peak to trough. Imagine an average household of three people. It means $150,000 will be thrown away over two years because this government can't manage housing and can't manage the economy. This government needs to be changed.

Question agreed to.