Housing Chaos at Senate Estimates

At Senate Estimates it has been revealed that more than 51,000 non -Australian citizens have been issued with 5% deposits by the Australian Government.

In July 2023, Labor changed the scheme to open it to permanent residents who are not Australian citizens.

Labor opened a scheme to promote Australian homeownership to people who are not Australians by definition.

While we value the contributions of permanent residents, it is unreasonable to expect the Australian government to underwrite the home ownership aspirations of citizens of other nations.

In a farcical hearing, the Minister representing the Housing Minister couldn’t say whether this was a decision of the Cabinet or the Minister acting unilaterally.

The Government must now supply all the data underpinning the 5% scheme on notice as they were not prepared for a number of basic questions such as income decile and age groups.

We also heard the Government’s policy to freeze the National Construction Code (NCC) collapse in the hearing. Minister Ayres told the hearing the Government’s prior commitment to freeze the NCC was dead.

This is despite Treasurer Chalmers promising to fix the NCC in the immediate term and to impose a 4 year freeze. We already knew Labor wouldn’t simplify and ease the burden of the NCC.

Now we know their 4 year freeze is as good as their commitment to leave Capital Gains Tax and negative gearing alone.

It is illegal to build a cheap house in Australia. This is one reason the Australian Dream is dying.

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