PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS
Ms LE (Fowler) (19:07): Housing is an important issue in my community in south-west Sydney. The government throws around big numbers—$47 billion in housing investment, $6.3 billion for infrastructure, a promise of 55,000 social and affordable homes. It sounds impressive, but my community does not live in a press release; they live in overcrowded houses, in garages turned into bedrooms and in rentals where the rent rises faster than the pay.
The government keeps promising 1.2 million new homes by the middle of 2029. But its own expert body, the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council, forecasts a shortfall of 262,000 homes, with no state on track to build its share. The government has already shown it cannot keep its word on housing, so why should Fowler believe this time is different?
Announcements do not lay a single brick. Homes are built by tradies, and we do not have enough of them. Yet from January this year the government halved apprenticeship support for many trades, cutting the payment to both apprentice and employer from $5,000 to $2,500.
It says it's protected housing and construction apprentices—and, on paper, it has. But our building industry draws on the whole skills pipeline, and employer groups warn that these cuts will deepen the shortage. So when the government promises 55,000 homes, I ask, 'With which workforce?' In Fowler, housing projects are already stalling under the rising cost of construction, materials and labour.
The biggest cost of all is one we rarely talk about—tax. On a new house and land package in Sydney, government taxes, charges and regulatory costs now add up to around $576,000, according to the Housing Industry Association. That is close to half the price of an average new home of about $1.2 million; half the cost before a family even moves in goes to the government.
If the government is serious about affordability, this is where it should start. Working Australians are taxed when they earn, taxed when they shop, taxed when they drink, taxed when they drive and taxed on the very roof they sleep under. Then they're offered a small tax cut and told to be grateful.
But a small cut does not touch the half a million dollars built into the price of a home. Real relief means lifting the burden of the homes our families are trying to build. There is also the $2 billion Local Infrastructure Fund for the roads and services new homes need.
How it's shared out matters because not all councils start from the same place. Growth areas like Fowler carry some of the highest housing stress in the country. Our infrastructure is already stretched.
South-west Sydney is one of the fastest-growing regions in the nation. We are not starting from zero; we are starting from behind. Households spend more than 30 per cent of their income on rent—sometimes 40 per cent.
People come into my office in tears sometimes because they can't afford rent or don't have a house to live in. This points to a deeper problem. At every election, the major parties pour funding into the seats they want to win, but governing for all Australians has to mean more than a chequebook at election time.
The independent Grattan Institute examined billions in federal grants and found a clear pattern: government held and marginal seats received far more than the rest, while worthy projects elsewhere missed out. This is not one side of politics. Both major parties, federal and state, have done it for years.
Fowler knows how this feels. For years it was treated as a safe seat, and a safe seat is one that gets taken for granted. Roads, schools and hospitals should be funded on need, not on how a seat is likely to vote.
My community should not have to become marginal just to be heard. I want more social and affordable housing, better infrastructure and a fair chance for young people to own a home and for families to rent securely. I will support any serious policy that gets us there, but I will not congratulate the government for a plan that does not guarantee a fair share for Fowler, does not prioritise growth areas and does not fix the workforce, cost and tax barriers holding back construction.
My constituents deserve more than slogans. They deserve a housing system that works for them in their streets, in their suburbs and in their lifetime. The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Lawrence ): The time allotted for this debate has expired.
The debate is adjourned, and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.