Wednesday, 16 October 2024

Housing

Ellen SANDELL (Melbourne) (10:07): The housing system is broken, and it is breaking people. Labor and the Liberals have created a housing system where a property investor can buy a $4.3 million beachfront, clifftop home, while young people cannot even find a place to rent, let alone buy their first apartment to live in. The system is totally cooked. The housing system that Labor and the Liberals have created gives tax discounts to people who buy their 10th home, called negative gearing. The system that Labor and the Liberals have created gives a 50 per cent tax discount to people who make profits from speculating on property. These tax discounts and handouts cost the rest of us $176 billion. That is $176 billion that working people are paying to wealthy people so they can buy investment properties.

Rents in Melbourne have gone up $110 a week in the last two years, far outstripping wages and inflation. It is no wonder young people are angry, and the Greens are angry also because we are the only ones fighting to actually fix this totally cooked system, but pressure is building on Labor and the Liberals. Young people are angry, and they are asking Labor and the Liberals to act. They are demanding change, and if Labor does not change, they are not going to just have to worry about the cliff that their beachfront home is on, they are going to have to worry about the cliff their vote falls off at the next election.