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Title

PRIVATE MEMBERS’ BUSINESS

Land and Vendor Taxes

Database

House Hansard

Date

23-05-2005

Source

House of Reps

Parl No.

41

Electorate

Chisholm

Interjector

SPEAKER, The

Kelly, Jackie, MP

Main Committee/Federation Chamber

 

Page

53

Party

ALP

Presenter

 

Status

Final

Question No.

 

Questioner

 

Responder

 

Speaker

Burke, Anna, MP

Stage

Land and Vendor Taxes

Type

 

Context

PRIVATE MEMBERS BUSINESS

System Id

chamber/hansardr/2005-05-23/0123


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Monday, 23 May 2005
Page: 53


Ms BURKE (3:28 PM) —I stated the following on the Insiders back in November last year:

The great Australian dream is now a nightmare for many. Most young people will never be able to afford their own home.

According to the Reserve Bank, 60 per cent of the population have paid down their loan or have a mortgage. That leaves 40 per cent out in the cold.

According to Mr Costello, our economy is going gang busters, but it’s all on the Visa card and the day of reckoning will come—and with interest.

Australians are spending 2.5 per cent more than they earn. Thirty to 50 per cent of our wages are going on home loan repayments.

Where’s the government’s plan to make housing affordable, to curb spiralling credit card debt and overexposure on home loans? Where’s a plan for livable suburbs?

John Howard and company have been re-elected but their inaction may cost you more than you’ve bargained for.

So I said. Today’s motion is the first attempt by anyone in the government to look at the crisis of housing affordability and, instead of going to the heart of the issue, the cost of housing, it is a cheap shot over land tax—land tax which, in Victoria, is not on the family home but on commercial and investment properties, with many businesses, such as aged care, exempt.

The Victorian state government has heard the cry of investors and many self-funded retirees, who rely on rental income as their primary source of income in retirement, and has provided substantial tax relief in this year’s budget to around 44,000 taxpayers. But this measure from the Victorian government and the motion before this House will not provide relief to renters or to first home buyers locked out of an overinflated investment market. The government thinks that the housing boom is terrific and that home owners now have a huge amount of equity, but who of us will realise that asset? Home owners are not about to sell the family home and, with so many people geared to the hilt, even if they do sell the family home, they will not walk away with any equity—most of them will still walk away with debt.

The housing affordability summit in 2004 found that affordability of housing was at its lowest level ever and that this would get worse if vigorous and coordinated action was not taken immediately. In the past 10 years average house prices relative to income have doubled, the proportion of first home buyers has fallen by 30 per cent, average monthly loan repayments have increased by 50 per cent and the proportion of low-rent homes has fallen by 15 per cent. So what is the government doing? Today it is beating up on land tax, patting itself on the back for the first home owners’ grant—which it put in place because of the GST. It has done very little to address property spruikers and is telling everyone that, if they just go out and buy property, they will get rich. That has done more to take away investment than land tax has, by any measure. A recent study by Demographia has revealed:

... Sydney is less affordable than New York, Melbourne is less affordable than Miami and Las Vegas is more affordable than Brisbane, Adelaide or Hobart.

Housing affordability is a major issue for Australians ... [and] the Howard Government has had its head in the sand on this issue. Despite years of heartache for Aussie battlers trying to get into their first home, the first draft of a housing affordability strategy is not even expected to be released until the middle of this year.

Labor supports a unified national approach to tackling the housing affordability crisis. We condemn the Howard Government for its complete lack of national leadership as housing costs have spiralled out of control.’

Following my Insiders appearance last year, David from the Tenants Union of Victoria sent me the following email:

I’m writing to congratulate you on raising the important issue of housing affordability ...

It is a sad fact that there is a lack of affordable housing throughout Melbourne including in your electorate of Chisholm. At the Tenants Union we provide assistance to almost 30,000 tenants annually in both private and social housing systems who are suffering through unaffordable or inappropriate housing. We assist many people for whom housing related poverty is a reality—many paying huge percentages of their limited incomes on housing. We recognise that for many Victorians the dream of owning their own home is becoming a fantasy and that many of your constituents will probably never own their own home.

…            …            …

Despite the fact that renting is a State matter the Federal Government has a responsibility to provide adequate resources for public housing and CRA—

Commonwealth rental assistance—

 and I’m sure you also receive representations on these issues regularly.

Something more needs to be done to achieve more affordable housing. Something more needs to be done for renters. This motion is just a nice try at smearing a Labor state government the day before it releases its budget. How about this government actually doing something? How about making the Australian dream a reality for many?