Coalition Senators' Additional Comments

Introduction

1.1The National Housing and Homelessness Plan Bill 2024 (No. 2) (bill) establishes a National Housing Consumer Council and a National Housing and Homelessness Advocate to address the Albanese Government’s failure to adequately house Australians.

1.2The Coalition is principally concerned by the creation of further government bureaucracy with regards to housing. We do not consider that the bill adequately outlines how it will improve housing supply.

1.3Coalition Senators believe that the Parliament’s focus should be on policy proposals that address supply and demand side hurdles, and are totally focussed on individual home ownership.

Two and a Half Years of Failed Labor Housing Policy

1.4After two and a half years of Labor governance, the state of home ownership in Australia is bleak. This year, 160 000 homes are expected to be built. This is the same number of homes that were built in 1989, when Australia housed only 17million people.

1.5With more bureaucracy, we are building fewer houses.

1.6Labor has failed to deliver on its core housing election commitments. First, its target for 1.2 million new homes under the National Housing Accord is set to fall at least 260 000 homes short according to the Housing Supply and Affordability Council.[1]Second, the Housing Australia Future Fund, a thinly veiled excuse to give institutional investors a leg up to invest in the housing market, has not made a single disbursement or built a single home.[2]Third, the opportunity to co-own a home with the Australian Government through the Help to Buy Scheme has been so unpopular that it has failed to pass the Parliament.

1.7Labor is making this housing crisis much worse by not building enough homes, allowing our population to grow at a faster rate than properties are being constructed, and advancing a policy approach that prioritises corporate home ownership over individual home ownership.

1.8The answer to the housing crisis is not a corporate housing agenda, nor is it more housing bureaucracy. The answer is a comprehensive policy agenda to address supply and demand side hurdles that is carefully calibrated alongside state and local government, and totally focused on individual home ownership.

1.9The Coalition has announced a number of policies in this regard. This includes a super for housing policy, which would allow first home buyers to access 40per cent or $50 000 of their super to purchase a first home, a plan to reduce foreign demand and free up almost 40 000 additional homes in the first year of Coalition Government, and a $5 billion infrastructure program to unlock 500 000 homes through essential infrastructure.

1.10This is the right plan to get the Australian Dream back on track.

1.11That the Parliament concentrates on eliminating the major supply and demand hurdles in the housing market.

Footnotes

[1]Ms Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz, Chair, National Housing Supply and Affordability Council, Proof Committee Hansard, 6 November 2024, p. 61.

[2]Ms Victoria Anderson, Deputy Secretary, Small Business, Housing, Corporate and Law Group, Department of the Treasury, Proof Committee Hansard, 6 November 2024, pp. 58-59.