Page 1377 - Week 04 - Thursday, 30 March 2017
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We mentioned yesterday that we are creating a city which is too expensive for a major chunk of its residents to live in. I know that we will hear the official housing affordability figures rolled out. I know that Minister Berry and others will tell us that everything is fine because the figures suggest that housing is affordable in our town. We know that the figures do not reflect reality. To illustrate that, I can think of nobody better to quote than my old friend Jon Stanhope. This is what the former Chief Minister wrote in CityNews in June 2015 about the housing affordability indicators:
The use of aggregate indicators to prove that Canberra housing is affordable ignores the unique double-peaked nature of the income distribution in the ACT.
This is Jon Stanhope pointing to the same two-class city that I spoke of yesterday. Mr Stanhope went on to say:
This illustrates the high proportion of households on moderate or high incomes and the relatively low number on average income. The reporting of housing affordability in the ACT is seriously distorted as a result.
As we all know there are virtually no houses in Canberra for sale for under $400,000 and very few available for under $500,000. A family on a gross income of under $100,000 would be under financial stress servicing a mortgage on a house valued at more than $400,000 assuming that they could raise a deposit in the first place.
It is insulting in the extreme to suggest to all those families that housing in Canberra is affordable.
Whenever those on the other side trot out housing affordability figures in here, in the Canberra Times, in Garema Place, at the bar or anywhere else, whenever they insist that housing is affordable in Canberra, I think they should be reminded of Mr Stanhope’s words:
It is insulting in the extreme to suggest to all those families that housing in Canberra is affordable.
I would like to refer, if I could, to the Anglicare rental affordability snapshot 2015. This annual report describes the numbers of houses affordable to people on low incomes. They use data from realestate.com.au, from allhomes and from Gumtree, of all places. Let me run through some of these figures for you.
What does the Anglicare rental affordability report tells us about the number of affordable houses in the private market in my electorate of Brindabella for a couple on Newstart with two children under 10? How many private market dwellings are affordable? Not a single one. Not one. Indeed, there were not any right across the capital.
How many houses were affordable for a single person over the age of 21 on a disability support pension? Not a single one. How many houses do you think were affordable for a single person on a minimum wage, plus family tax benefits A and
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