Dave Sharma (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs) | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked by Opposition senators today.

We're seeing a slow-motion wreck of the housing market. National Australia Bank just reported today they've seen a 16 per cent decline in home loan applications. Westpac reported last week a 20 per cent decline in home loan applications. CBA had a 15 per cent decline, and ANZ had a 12 per cent decline. These are some of the biggest quarterly declines we've seen in the housing market. It's not just a case of buyers losing out here. As the National Australia Bank chief executive Andrew Irvine said today:

It's not just owners, occupiers and investors. There's a whole supply chain of people who make their living in the housing market, and they're struggling right now.

When the housing market suffers, the Australian economy suffers, and, more importantly, as house prices come down—which they are undoubtedly doing—it changes the economics of new builds and new constructions. It's less attractive for a private builder to enter the market if they're going to be able to sell the house for less, and with the high cost base they've got, all we can say is that this is going to further discourage new construction in the housing sector.

What we have here is a loss of confidence in the housing market. Investors are staying on the sidelines. Buyers are not entering the market; sellers are not putting their houses on the market. We're seeing that in the decline in home loan applications across the board. But we're also seeing higher rents. In my own town of Sydney, the June quarter figures showed that rents increased by $50 a week, or 6.3 per cent. That's the highest increase there has been in four years in rents. If you're not in the market to buy a house but you're in the market to rent a house, you are worse off as well.

We're seeing fewer homes. Labor's own budget papers—Treasury's authored budget papers—predict that there will be 35,000 fewer homes because of Labor's policy. We've got a situation where we've got fewer homes getting built, we've got higher rents for those who can't afford a home, and we've got a fall in confidence in the housing sector, which is discouraging new builders—and certainly investors—from entering the market. When you couple that with the low productivity growth we are seeing in the economy, and we've just seen from the RBA Statement on Monetary Policy last week that productivity growth has declined. Rather than growing 0.2 per cent through 2026, as they expected, they now think it will contract by 0.5 per cent over the year. Even just over a year ago, the RBA downgraded its long-range forecast for productivity growth in the Australian economy from one per cent to 0.7 per cent.

We've got worsening productivity performance in Australia, and, as the Reserve Bank said last week as well, when the economy is as weak as it is, when productivity is not growing, that constrains the ability of the economy to grow anywhere above two per cent without generating high inflation. And that's what we've got in Australia at the moment. We've got inflation that has now been outside the RBA's target band for well over 36 months—still not within it. We've got inflation still running at well over three per cent. We've got people's real wages declining. If you look at the ABS stats from last week, average weekly full-time earnings grew 3.7 per cent over the year. Inflation over the same period was four per cent, and the higher nominal earnings mean they're paying more in tax. An average worker, on average full-time earnings, is worse off by about $570 a week.

These are all design features of Labor's economic policy. A weakening housing market is a design feature. High inflation has become a design feature. High interest rates, which accompany it are a design feature. Low productivity growth is a design feature. Growing public sector spending is a design feature, and higher government debt—about $986 billion the last time I checked—is another design feature. These design features of the Australian economy are hurting Australian workers, and they're making our economy weaker.

Varun Ghosh (WA, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

There is a housing crisis in this country, but I can tell you what it isn't. It isn't that property investors have had their feelings hurt, and it isn't that they don't get a chance to make money hand over fist like they used to. The housing crisis is that young Australians can't get into homes, the housing crisis is that homelessness is rising in this country, and the housing crisis is that entire generations, from grandparents to parents to children, have given up hope about the future of their offspring having secure housing in the long-term.

But the question today, and that first comment from Senator Sharma, gives away what they care about because the question said 'buyer confidence'.This is not about buyer confidence and it's not about investor confidence. Those are market terms. This is about getting ordinary Australians into their own homes and about them having housing security across their lifetimes. The reason it's so important is that we know that housing security is linked to so many other good outcomes across someone's lifetime, particularly as they age. We also know that women in our society are the most vulnerable to housing insecurity when they don't own their own home, particularly in retirement.

That tells you where this Senate is divided. On this side of the Senate, we are keen to get people into their own homes and to reduce demand a little bit, particularly from investors, to ensure that prices in the market stabilise. That's our priority. That's why the policies we've introduced—including changes to taxation, and trying to build more homes in this country and get more homes approved to be built—are geared towards the two elements of the problem: reducing demand and stabilising prices and increasing supply. That's why the National Australia Bank and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia have both said that these changes are for and to the benefit of owner-occupiers of homes—for people trying to get into their own houses—and not for investors. We're very proud of that. We're very proud of that priority we're setting, because we're dealing with a crisis.

Over on that side of the Senate, they're such catastrophisers about the housing market. The reality is that, while you have a strong labour market in this country and a backlog that's now been around for more than a decade, demand for housing is not going to go through the floor. People need to get into their own homes. There's a kind of deep empirical and logical flaw about this, but it shows you what they are willing to do. They are always willing to take the negative position. They are always trying to look after their mates in the property industry, but the people they don't care about are ordinary working Australians—young Australians—who've been locked out of this market for far too long.

I want to talk about our tax changes a little bit. The decision by John Howard in 1999 to introduce a 50 per cent discount on capital gains tax has not only not addressed the housing problem; it's really made it a lot worse. What followed from that is that homeownership rates in Australia dropped by five per cent, and the number of renters increased as people were priced out of the market. It's also meant that the price of houses has gone up and up and up, because investors can afford to do this on the basis that they're going to get a return and that they've had super generous tax advantages for a very long time.

In a practical sense, it's also meant that the situation we find ourselves in is one where 60 per cent of first home buyers have reported receiving some form of assistance from their parents. Most first home buyers can't really contemplate it unless they have the capacity to receive that assistance. We're really trying to stabilise house prices, increase supply and reduce investor demand so that people who need a home to live in have a chance in this market. They need a chance. The Labor Party is on their side to give them a chance, and the coalition is, once again, interested only in investor confidence and making money for their mates.

Jessica Collins (NSW, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

We've just heard from the government that they want to stabilise. We heard from our Foreign minister today in this chamber that all these changes to the housing market are about redistribution. I have never heard anything so socialist in all my life—redistribution, by this Labor government, of the housing market, of the wealth generated in this society.

Senator Ghosh was just talking about not having feelings hurt for the investors. Let me tell you about the households that are feeling it right now. We asked the government about whether they are across the reality of their tax changes—a trifecta of fewer homes, higher rents and falling buyer confidence. They've absolutely got their heads in the sand over the reality of that. They think our assumptions are wrong. All you have to do is step out of Parliament House and go and see how people are hurting out there. It's not their feelings that are hurt; it's their pockets, wealth, aspirations and dreams. This government's taken all that away from them.

Let's talk about a little bit of history from the 1990s and the Hawke-Keating government, when they had their head in the sand. They had a very deliberate policy to slow down the economy, and that went very, very badly indeed. It turned into a severe economic downturn, with unemployment of 11 per cent. But they weren't across that reality. They didn't step outside this parliament house, the Canberra bubble, and go and see how people are really feeling out there. They focused on structural change but not the brutal reality of their bad policy.

But we know that, out there right now, there are no new loans for houses, confidence is down, no sales across weekends, no new builds, higher rents, higher prices and higher migration. It is the absolute perfect economic storm—redistribution.

Of course, it gets worse than that. My colleague, Senator Blyth, asked some excellent questions about falling productivity. We asked whether Labor, since they came to office, could name one year in which productivity growth reached the long-run average necessary to sustainably increase living standards. Of course, it would be a very easy answer if there were a year they could name, but they couldn't. Instead, they talked about our voting record. That's very telling, isn't it. After four years, we asked: 'Where's the plan to raise productivity?' They don't really have one. All they can do is talk about our voting record.

In fact, what we did hear from the leader of the Senate was, 'Put up, or shut up,' on the very serious issue of productivity. I don't see, in any world, where it is okay to tell an active opposition to a government to, 'Put up, or shut up,' with bad policy like that. It is very telling. They say we're anti housing, when here we are trying to hold them to account for their complete destruction of the housing market. We heard from the Reserve Bank how bad it's getting out there:

Relative to the May forecast, a stronger population growth assumption has led to slightly higher GDP growth over most of the forecast period…

It means that they're using population to cover up their bad productivity. (Time expired)

Karen Grogan (SA, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

This is a fascinating discussion that we're having here. Maybe I'm rising here to offend Senator Collins. It's not my intent, but claiming that those of us over here are stuck in a Canberra bubble and there's been so sales and no builds of housing is, quite frankly, blatantly untrue. This is the problem: the debate that we are having is one that is being characterised on one side, over there, by our colleagues, as one where nothing is happening and that we're trashing the market. Yet, what we are seeing is people getting an opportunity. We believe that a home should primarily be a home, not primarily for wealth generation, investment or a tax break. We believe that people deserve safe, reliable homes, whether that be rentals or whether that be a purchase. We have worked to rebalance the market.

In fact, since we were elected in 2022, real, tangible progress has been made. We have shifted the dial. We put $47 billion on the table. That's what our plan has committed: $47 billion, while they over there, the coalition, didn't have a housing minister for most of the nine years they were in government. That's hardly a commitment. They built less than 400 homes. I hardly think that they've got much ground to stand on in this debate other than to perpetuate rubbish, which is what we have heard quite a lot of this afternoon.

We know that the new ABS data is showing that building approvals have gone up by nine per cent in the last financial year. They're not down, not flatlining, but up by nine per cent. We're seeing the evidence of the turnaround on our investment. I might just take you to a very specific example in my home state of South Australia. I'm a very proud South Australian, and I think the work that the Albanese Labor government has done with the Malinauskas government in South Australia is leading this country. We know that it's not just about building the houses but about the enabling infrastructure.

The announcement made earlier this year by our governments in the federal and the state space has unlocked 17,000 new homes. That's about understanding the environment—our urban fringe into our regions—where people need housing, but we need that enabling infrastructure to make it happen. With a solution focus, with a positive focus, with an overwhelming desire to help people find their own homes, to help them live in safe and secure environments whether they are renting or buying—this is the kind of outcome we need to see, and this is exactly what we've been doing.

I would say to my colleagues on the other side of this chamber: have a long, hard look at the reality as opposed to the ideological political spin, because you are protecting your wealthy mates and your property investors, and you don't give a rat's pyjamas about the people on the ground who are telling us that this is exactly what they need. They are getting into housing, they are getting into rentals and they are actually starting to see the future. Grandparents and parents are actually now starting to see that their children are going to have an opportunity, which for years—almost a decade of that lot in government—they could not see, as this crisis loomed. (Time expired)

Leah Blyth (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Defence Infrastructure) | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm going to pick up a little bit from what Senator Grogan was just talking about. I, too, am a very proud South Australian, but the reality is: you can make all of the housing announcements you like. You can announce 17,000 homes, but they still need to be built. They still need to be delivered. This Labor government is falling short on delivering for the Australian people.

We have inflation in Australia out of control, and it has been for 36 months. We've got inflation that continues to rise, and real wages are not keeping pace. What that means is that people are working harder and they are keeping far less of what they earn. In reality, their wages are not just stagnant but actually going backwards. That is unacceptable in a country like Australia.

The crazy thing is, this is all by design. The Labor government has designed the policies that are doing this in the Australian economy. Today, in question time, I was asking questions about productivity, and the Labor government could not point to a single year where we've seen productivity grow under their government over the last four years—not one single year. That is an indictment on this government. They're not taking responsibility and saying: 'Maybe we've got some of these plans wrong. Maybe what we're doing is not achieving what we believe or what we intend it to achieve.' No—instead of doing that, we hear from Minister Wong, saying that we need to put up or shut up. We, as opposition, need to put up or shut up.

I would say to Minister Wong: we will happily take over government. I think the Australian people are fast coming to the conclusion that this government is failing them and that you cannot believe a single word of what this government tells the Australian people. This government is constantly making up mistruths and telling the Australian people that everything is fine, that wages have never been so high, that Australians have never had it so good. All you have to do is walk out of this building and go and talk to real Australians. Real Australians are trying to keep their businesses afloat. Real Australian business owners, rather than employing more people—because they can't afford it—aren't taking salaries, because their electricity bills have gone up so much under this Labor government. The transport costs for getting things into their restaurants, into their bakeries, into their businesses have also gone up, and then they've got to pay their staff higher wages.

This is pushing businesses to the absolute breaking point, yet this government continues to tell them that they've never had it so good. It's never been so good under this Labor government. I think the Australian people are—rightly—calling them out on that. They aren't feeling it. They are feeling poorer. They are feeling as though they are working harder—and that is because they are.

We've got families who cannot balance the household budget under this Labor government, and this government keeps saying, 'We've announced all of these houses.' The announcements are the really easy thing to do in government. It is very easy to go out and make an announcement; it's very difficult to actually deliver.

We've got a whole lot of young people in Australia now who have negative equity in their homes because of this government's five per cent deposit scheme. These are young Australians who now owe more than what their housing asset is worth. They should never have been put in that position by this government. Things are going terribly, terribly wrong, and I say to them, 'It's time; Australians need a change.' (Time expired)

Question agreed to.