Page 1551 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 7 May 2008
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We need to acknowledge that there is no quick-fix and that we need to make fundamental changes to the system. This is a very ambitious, long-term program to which the government has committed. Nonetheless, the government has achieved a considerable amount of progress in implementing its action plan. It has demonstrated what can be achieved when challenges are taken up with innovative ways of thinking and delivery of solutions. The government is getting on with the job of providing access to affordable housing for all.
I would like to compare the action plan with the affordability package put forward by the Leader of the Opposition. It is not really a package; it is just a bit of populist nonsense. That package consists of just one measure—providing relief for first home buyers who can afford to purchase more expensive properties. That is the policy, there it is. It is a one-hit response or resolution to housing affordability. Mr Zed Seselja, as Leader of the Opposition, says, “We will provide relief for first home buyers who can afford to purchase expensive properties.” That is the affordability strategy of the Liberal Party. That is their action plan. That is the Zed Seselja action plan for housing affordability—provide relief to first home buyers who have the money to buy expensive homes. The Leader of the Opposition has been keen to trot out the quote from the federal Minister for Housing, Tanya Plibersek, supporting stamp duty relief for first home buyers and, therefore, supporting their proposal.
It is ironic that the Liberal Party is looking for credibility for its specific policy proposal this way, the irony being that the support would only extend insofar as the Liberals’ singular attempt at housing affordability policy—in fact, as I said before, its one and only attempt at policy announcement in three and a half years—is already made completely redundant by the ACT government’s longstanding home buyer concession scheme.
Under this scheme, first home buyers purchasing properties valued below $310,000 pay only $20 in duty, which is effectively no duty. That threshold is linked to the market so that it maintains its value. This means the lowest 20 per cent of properties will always be effectively duty free for eligible first home buyers. The properties up to the median house price will always attract a concessional rate of duty. In this budget I announced, as I am sure you noted, Mr Assistant Speaker, a 20 per cent increase in the income eligibility threshold for the home buyer concession scheme to ensure that many more Canberrans will benefit from a reduced rate of duty on the purchase of their new home.
But let me come back to the issue of endorsement by the federal Minister for Housing. If we look in more detail at her recent address to the National Press Club, the minister spoke of the need for sufficient modest entry-level homes for first home buyers. I need to repeat that and actually compare this with what the Liberal Party is proposing. The minister said there was a need for sufficient modest entry-level homes for first home buyers. The ACT government’s home buyer concession scheme provides just that support. It is a scheme targeted at those households most in need of assistance—that is moderate-income households purchasing entry-level properties. Stamp duty relief is most meaningful for those households.
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