A new Essential Poll has been released and it reveals that Australian voters want federal government action on housing:
A new Essential poll shows 62 per cent of those surveyed think the federal government isn’t doing enough, while 60 per cent believe Labor needs to do more.
“We will have a minister for housing when we are in government because it’s a key area,” Labor senator Doug Cameron told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday.
“It’s the key area of intergenerational inequality in this country.”
Senator Cameron said the government’s bond aggregator policy – to source capital for low-interest, long-term housing development loans – is not enough.
“We will have more to say before the election on housing affordability,” he said.
But crossbench senator David Leyonhjelm said housing affordability is not an issue for Australians living outside Sydney or Melbourne.
“I don’t think the federal government should get involved in it at all, other than to maybe muscle the state governments,” he said.
Housing affordability was essentially a problem of supply.
“It’s a state government problem and it’s within the control of the state governments to do something about it.”
When broken down along party lines, the Essential poll reveals 49 per cent of coalition voters believe the federal government isn’t doing enough on affordability, while 57 per cent of Labor voters want the opposition to do more.
Pinning the blame on the federal government for Australia’s housing affordability woes is fair enough, given it:
- has chosen to run a mass immigration ‘Big Australia’ policy, leaving the cash stricken states to pick up the cost burden (e.g. via infrastructure);
- it controls the various tax policies that have distorted the housing market (e.g. negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount);
- it controls rules and enforcement surrounding foreign buyers, and has deliberately chosen not to implement global anti-money laundering laws for real estate gate keepers; and
- it permitted self-managed superannuation funds to leverage into property, thus increasing demand.
Hopefully Labor will introduce more meaningful measures, beyond its negative gearing and capital gains tax discount, prior to the upcoming federal election.
