Greens call on federal government to treat housing crisis as national emergency
The Australian Greens have tabled a motion in Parliament demanding the federal government recognise the country’s housing crisis as a matter of public urgency.
The move follows recent Cotality showing that over one in three property markets now have median values above $1 million.
Senator Barbara Pocock, the Greens spokesperson for housing, finance and homelessness, said Labor's first-home buyer policies are exacerbating the crisis rather than solving it.
Pocock took aim at tax breaks for landlords (though no specifics were supplied) and the 5% deposit scheme as measures that inflate prices and worsen affordability for renters and first-home buyers.
Labor’s 5% deposit scheme serves as its cornerstone housing policy, but it has been met with widespread criticism for heaping further demand-side pressure into the housing market without addressing supply-side constraints.
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“This government needs to start treating housing as a human right instead of a game of monopoly…. The Australian dream of home ownership is dead,” said Pocock, noting that rates of home ownership are falling especially among those under 35, with 25-29-year-olds dropping from 50% in 1971 to 36% in 2021.
“Home ownership is out of reach for so many Australians. Thirty years ago it took four years of average weekly earnings to buy a house, now it’s on track to be more than eight times the average. How do first-home buyers stand a chance?
“Under the major parties, housing has become a wealth accumulation asset, not a roof over our heads. Housing finance is increasingly spent on investment properties not home ownership, with investors making up around their highest share of new lending since 2017.”
Pocock said Australia’s housing market “is rigged in favour of wealthy property investors and banks and it’s failing everyone else”.
She continued: “It’s clear where Labor’s priorities lie – with the big banks, property developers and wealthy investors - while another generation of renters and potential first-home buyers are left behind.”
