QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE: TAKE NOTE OF ANSWERS

Senator GHOSH (Western Australia) (15:08): 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.