HILDA FIGURES SHOW FAILURE OF TURNBULL HOUSING POLICIES

Today’s Household, Income and Labour Dynamics (HILDA) figures show that the Turnbull Government continues to put investors buying their fourth or fifth property ahead of young people trying to buy their first home.

 

The huge drop in home ownership for people under 40 and declining living standards and flat wages are the headlines, but it is the Turnbull Government’s policy response that needs to be highlighted.

 

Their policies are worsening what commentators are calling ‘damning evidence of wealth disparity across generations’, in another example of how the Turnbull Government continues to promote and defend inequality.

 

Their disregard for Australians trying to buy their first home shows they just don’t care about growing intergenerational inequality.

 

They repeat the discredited claim that reform of negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions would raise rents. They need to be called to account for this weak defence of unfair tax concessions that favour property investors, distort the housing market and keep home ownership beyond the reach of a whole generation of renters.

 

They have no credibility on housing. They claimed that the 2017 Budget would deliver an ‘extraordinarily large’ housing package and ‘it will be an impressive package, it will be a well-received package.’. However, the Budget grab-bag of unrelated measures did not address key drivers of housing unaffordability - the Grattan Institute’s John Daley said “you'll need a scanning electron microscope to see an impact on prices”.

 

Labor has a suite of costed and fair policies that will address the problems highlighted by the HILDA report. Labor is leading the debate on housing policy, while the Turnbull Government continues to defend the indefensible.