Page 881 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 2 April 2008
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Just imagine that: the Liberal Party has added $110,000 to a standard mortgage in the ACT. So $110,000 has been taken by the Liberal Party, through its economic mismanagement, out of the pockets of young Canberra families. That is the legacy of the Liberal Party—a $110,000 mortgage burden, courtesy of the Liberal Party. It is the party of those who have the audacity to stand here today and moralise on housing affordability. It is the party that, over a decade of profligate spending and vote buying—economic mismanagement on a grand scale—set the inflationary foundations for the rate rises that are now burdening ordinary Canberrans.
This Liberal legacy is biting not just in the ACT but right across the nation. We are all hurting as a result of this Liberal Party legacy. The difference here in the territory is that the Labor government has been more proactive than governments anywhere else in Australia. We have recognised that, while the Liberal Party’s interest rate rises are the single biggest obstacle to housing affordability for millions of Australians, there are others. The issue is complex and it deserves a complex solution. And that is what the ACT government has devised: a solution. It is in stark contrast to those on the opposition benches, who have no plan, no idea and no policy—just a grab-bag of attacks on the integrity of public housing tenants and a penchant for fear mongering. That is not a plan; it is not a solution; it is not a policy.
I say that affordability is a complex issue, and so it is. When compared with other jurisdictions, the ACT fares well on housing affordability measures. The December quarter 2007 home loan affordability report published by the Real Estate Institute of Australia gives the ACT the highest affordability index in the nation. That is not an ACT government report; that is a report in 2007 by the Real Estate Institute of Australia on home loan affordability in Australia.
The basic measure of affordability across Australia is the proportion of family income devoted to meeting average loan repayments. And the ACT performs well in this regard. It is good of the Liberal Party to give us this opportunity to again put on the record the facts about what happens in the ACT, on average. We have to say “on average”; we have to acknowledge that some Canberra families are in very significant housing stress. There are some families—indeed, quite a number of families—within the ACT who do have significant stress or difficulty in meeting their mortgage payments. Of course, adding to that stress is the Liberal Party’s interest rate rises, which have added $337 a month to the mortgage of an average Canberra home buyer.
As I say, I accept that there are families who continue to be in significant stress, but on average, 21 per cent of the family income of an average Canberra family goes towards meeting loan repayments. Nationally, the proportion is 37.4 per cent. Just compare those figures. In the ACT, 21.1 per cent of the average family income goes towards meeting loan repayments. Nationally, it is 37 per cent. In New South Wales, it is 34.7 per cent. In Victoria, it is 36.2 per cent. In Queensland, it is 38.7 per cent. In South Australia, it is 35.7 per cent. In Western Australia and Tasmania, it is 33.5 per cent. Compare all of those percentages in the states with the figure for the ACT. In the ACT, it is 21 per cent. We Canberrans, on average, spend 21 per cent of our incomes on our mortgages.
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