Page 409 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 10 February 2021
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
give a hoot about the people who are struggling to pay their rent or who cannot get a seat on the rental merry-go-round because it is moving quite fast at the moment.
There was some political risk in our bringing this motion forward this week. I will explain why. What if, in yesterday’s budget, the government had magically actually done something about the shortfall in social housing? What if, in the budget, the government had actually addressed the rental affordability crisis? We would have looked quite stupid today. What if the power-sharing agreement promise of 400 new social dwellings had gone part of the way to being fulfilled? I was pretty confident that that would not be the case and, sadly, I was right.
I am absolutely dismayed, but not in the least bit surprised, that we are here debating this sort of motion. We have a genuine rental affordability crisis in this city, and it is playing out exactly the way we said it would. The motion aims to achieve a number of things. It aims to bring to light a major issue that a series of Labor-Greens governments in this city has exacerbated and repeatedly failed to address while at the helm over the past 20 years.
That issue is the cost of housing, and particularly the skyrocketing rents that many families and individuals across our community are very much struggling to contend with—and now worse than ever. At the end of the day, I am here with hope and optimism in the belief that maybe some of this motion—I would have thought—could succeed, and that ultimately it would lead to more homes for struggling families and individuals.
I use the word “struggling” quite loosely because, as thousands of people trying to get on the rental merry-go-round have discovered, this crisis is affecting many people who are a fair way up the food chain. As a small jurisdiction, there are not many national races that we win, but we are winning this one. When it comes to rental unaffordability we are the leaders.
New data from CoreLogic reported last month shows that the median weekly rent for houses in Canberra is now sitting at $657. In many suburbs that is an increase of more than 10 per cent in 12 months. This is not sustainable for families and individuals who are already struggling to get by. The story is the same for units and apartments in this city, with rents now averaging $473 per week. That is based on the CoreLogic research.
For low and middle-income earners, the ACT is becoming an even scarier place, whether you are looking to relocate your family at the end of lease or you are entering the market for the first time or whether you might be downsizing. Fascinatingly, we are seeing the opposite of these trends, particularly when it comes to inner city apartments, in Melbourne and Sydney.
We all know someone who is trying to find a rental right now. We all know people who are being shut out and who are reassessing their stay in this wonderful city because of the very real financial challenges that that presents. Despite two decades in government, Labor and, for the most part, the Greens have presided over a land release regime that has driven up housing costs with terribly constrained supply,
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video