Page 1434 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 6 May 2008
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MR STANHOPE: So you push up the price. You have people entering a market which then pushes those in the bottom quintile, who do not have the capacity to pay, who are struggling to make that entrée into housing—you make them compete. Under the Liberal Party policy, you force people in genuine housing stress to compete with first home buyers under no economic stress. It is shockingly flawed policy. It will drive demand. It will push up prices.
Mr Smyth interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Order, Mr Smyth!
MR STANHOPE: It will exclude people who are genuinely in housing stress. It is very poor policy and that is why we will not be supporting it. (Time expired.)
MR SPEAKER: Is there a supplementary question?
MR SESELJA: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Chief Minister, on this issue why are you out of step with your federal and state colleagues, as well as being out of touch with young home buyers?
MR STANHOPE: This initiative of the Liberal Party will not assist in the affordability equation at all. That is why we will not support it; that is why we have not implemented it. That is why we have no intention of implementing a policy which will drive demand, and which will actually perversely work against young families in genuine housing stress.
This sort of policy is quick fix, populist nonsense: “Oh, we’ll give every first home buyer a total exemption from stamp duty, no matter their capacity to pay. If you can walk up to the real estate agent with half a million dollars in notes, we’ll give you $20,000.” So that takes a house out. It provides government largesse to somebody in no housing stress, under no economic strain, and it forces them to compete with people who are genuinely in housing stress. It will do nothing for affordability—absolutely nothing. It will drive demand. It will have a perverse effect: it will make affordability worse for those young families at the bottom of the market. The sorts of policies that are incorporated within the 63 actions in the government’s housing affordability action plan are the sorts of actions that will genuinely impact on affordability and will enable young home buyers to enter the housing market.
I think we understand, from the nature of the advertising that accompanies this particular policy, that not even the Liberal Party are genuinely convinced that this sort of policy will work; otherwise they would be open and frank and not twist their advertising in the way they have. They are actually running columns that say, “This is what you’ll pay under the Liberals’ maximum stamp duty regime for first home buyers,” without any explanation that the column in their ad that applies to the maximum stamp duty under Labor does not impact on first home buyers receiving the concession. It is far more complex than what is shown in two simple columns.
There are, of course, a range of other columns. With respect to a first home buyer accessing a concession under the particular category in the government’s current regime—as the Liberal Party’s advertising is so vociferously pursuing, in order to get
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