Dave Smith:
Hi, my name’s Dave Smith, federal Member for Bean. We’re right here on the edge of Bean, here for a really exciting development, which will deliver affordable housing to critical workers in our health precinct, to veterans, as well as into our education precinct. As well too, I’m here with my great friend, the federal Minister for Housing and Homelessness, Clare O’Neil, and the ACT Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Housing and Homelessness, Yvette Berry. I’ll pass over to Yvette Berry.
Yvette Berry:
Morning everyone, and welcome to Woden. We’re very pleased today to be able to reach this milestone on this fantastic housing project in partnership with the ACT Government, the federal government’s partnerships, as well as CHC Canberra Community Housing Provider, and of course the Canberra Southern Cross Club.
This is such an important project for housing across the ACT, and will contribute to the ACT Government’s project funds of 5,000 community, social, and affordable housing here in the ACT. What makes this project so unique and so important is it will house 140 families, but 70 of those will be affordable rentals for key workers in our community, like health workers, teachers, nurses, people who might be studying here in the ACT, to be able to take up an opportunity to have an affordable rental and then have the opportunity to save through an affordable rent, and then perhaps buy a home of their own.
The ACT Government is contributing around $15 million to this project over 5 years in subsidies to rentals, as well as a lease variation waiver of around $2 million to $3 million on this particular project, partnering up with developers to provide affordable housing homes in our community. I want to thank Minister Clare O’Neil, for coming along today, and David Smith. It’s really great that we have our federal colleagues along to these projects to show how important these are for our community, but also for the country more generally. I’ll ask Minister O’Neil to make some comments.
Clare O’Neil:
Thank you so much, Yvette, and thank you, Dave. And what an exciting day for Canberra, as we turn the sod on a stack of new affordable homes that are needed by this community. We’re really proud to be here today, working in partnership with the ACT Government and local Canberrans who have worked with us to get this project moving.
We’ve been spending a lot of time up on the hill in the last couple of weeks talking about housing taxation, but I want Australians to understand that’s just a part of our government’s massive housing agenda. We’ve got a housing crisis in Australia that’s been cooking for 40 years, and the reason our housing system is broken, in part, is because that for that entire period we haven’t been building enough homes. One of the main reasons that that’s occurred is because governments stopped getting involved in housing Australians. In every developed country in the world, governments are involved in housing people who have got additional needs, but in Australia, Commonwealth governments again and again decided to shirk that responsibility, and that changed when our government was elected in 2022.
We’re building 55,000 social and affordable homes right around the country, and 70 of those are going to be right here on this site. This housing is going to be for healthcare workers who need to live near Canberra Hospital, and for veterans who desperately need the support of a country that they served overseas in defence of our nation. We’re really proud to be a part of this project, and can’t wait to come back, meet those tenants, and hand over keys to their new homes. Okay, we’ll go to questions.
Journalist:
How much of an impact will these apartments and affordable housing have in the ACT and the current housing crisis?
Berry:
Well, we need to build more. As Minister O’Neil has said, we’re far, far behind what we need to get ourselves through this housing crisis. What this will deliver is 70 affordable rentals in the ACT, which builds on the 5,000 commitment that the ACT Government has made. We’ll be having some announcements of our own tomorrow, in fact, about some of our housing projects coming through the Budget, the ACT Budget. So watch this space.
But all of these kinds of partnerships are the way that we get these housing projects done. The ACT Government could never have done it on its own, and so having an Australian Government involved in building housing across the country, and here in the ACT partnerships with the Southern Cross Club and Community Housing Canberra, all important to making sure that we can get through this housing crisis, and these are the kinds of innovations these kinds of projects are going to see us through that.
Journalist:
What can we expect in the Budget? More projects like these?
Berry:
Well, you’ll have to wait and see.
Journalist:
With that in mind, who is going to benefit from these houses the most in the ACT community?
Berry:
For affordable rentals here in the ACT, these will be for key workers, so teachers, nurses, students perhaps, veterans, who will be able to get into affordable home, pay an affordable rent, and then be able to save to buy a home of their own. So, this project will include 70 build-to-rent projects, which means for 15 years, people can rent here on an affordable rent subsidised by the ACT Government and then be able to save up for a home of their own.
Journalist:
So we can see that construction has officially been going. Do we have any timeline or indication as to when this will be completed?
Nathan Dal Bon:
Thank you, Nathan Dal Bon, CEO, CHC. So we’re looking at about an 18-month construction period.
Journalist:
So is the government open to longer inquiry to the negative gearing and government tax change?
O’Neil:
Look, these changes have been very well aerated and discussed. We’re really keen to get on with the business of delivering tax cuts for Australians and creating a level playing field for first home buyers. Now, we heard some very disturbing comments from Angus Taylor this morning that he is planning to not only vote against tax changes but unwind the tax cuts that our government is putting in place. Yet again the Liberals coming forward and saying that they want to increase taxes on the Australian people. Now we’ve got a government here that’s firmly focused on the Australians out there who are struggling right now to pay a stack of bills that’s sitting on their kitchen table. We’re doing that through our Budget and we’re doing it through a tax cut that will benefit 13 million people right across the country.
Journalist:
You’ve retained negative gearing for new builds. Are you expecting a rush of money into the sector? Is that what you’re hoping for?
O’Neil:
We are a pro‑supply government, and that’s because we understand that the reason for most of the housing woes being experienced by our country is that for 40 years we haven’t been building enough homes. So at the end of the day, if we want to get out of the situation we’re in, we’ve got to build, build, build. The government’s housing tax changes are all about that. Making sure that we build more homes for Australians through the big infrastructure funding that’s in the Budget, but also trying to channel that investment into new builds.
If we did step back from the housing tax conversation, we’ve had a situation in this country now for a long time, where we’ve had first home buyers subsidising investors to go to auctions and outbid them in auctions. That money has been flowing 80 per cent into existing dwellings. There is no public policy reason for this to occur. What we want to do is make sure that first home buyers have got primacy at auction, that they’re standing on a level playing field, and our government’s backing them in with our 5 per cent deposit program.
Journalist:
Did those tax changes perhaps go too far?
O’Neil:
These are really important tax changes that are going to make our country better and fairer. They’re going to do it by levelling the playing field for first home buyers, they’re going to build more homes for our country, and they’re going to go to give every single Australian out there a cut to their taxes if they’re getting their income from work. This is what our government’s all about: increasing wages, more first home buyers, and tax cuts for Australians.
Journalist:
I keep reading you’re not hitting your housing targets. Can you update us on the progress?
O’Neil:
Our government set really bold and ambitious housing targets right across the country. Now, it would have been very easy for our government to do the uncourageous thing and calculate how many homes our country was going to build, and add a couple of thousand on, and call that a target. That’s not what we are trying to do here. We want to attack the housing problem with boldness and ambition. We set big, difficult targets, because targets drive change, and we are already seeing that change right across the country.
Here in the ACT, but not just here, in WA, in Victoria, in New South Wales, we’re seeing really staggering planning reform that would have been unthinkable in Australian politics 5 years ago. We’re seeing all levels of government put their shoulder to the wheel to try to build more homes for the country, and we’re seeing really important progress on that, but there’s still a long way to go.
Journalist:
So, what do you say to a young person today who is buying a new home and is preparing to pay a mortgage off for a house that’s dropping in value?
O’Neil:
Look, the government’s tax changes have been really carefully modelled by Treasury, and the impacts on price are very moderate, so we’re talking about a 2 per cent slower growth rate than we would otherwise see. That’s about $20,000 on the average house price in this country. What was, you know, the sort of fundamental dynamics of what’s going on in the market today were actually present before the federal Budget, and that’s pretty important to understand in terms of how we’re understanding what drives this.
Journalist:
Is it a good thing or a bad thing that house prices are actually going to go down?
O’Neil:
Look, what we want to see is sustainable growth over the long term. I think anyone looking at the housing situation today. We can see that 400 per cent price growth that has occurred over a 25 year period is not sustainable for our country, and I want to be really clear with Australians about this. If we saw that kind of growth happen for another generation, we will be living in a country where the only way to get into home ownership is by inheriting money from your parents, and that is not Australia. We need to see affordability improve, and that’s a combination of increasing wages and moderated house price growth for the country.
Journalist:
Has the government considered capping the amount of properties an investor can own? A single investor or a family trust?
O’Neil:
Look, that’s not the proposed approach that the government has put in place. Here we’ve got a really clear plan on housing taxation that will see first home buyers, for the first time in many, many years, stand on a level playing field with investors. And I don’t want to jump the gun, but I think we’re already seeing some pretty impressive results from that. It’s a long time that I’ve picked up a Sunday newspaper and read article after article talking about first home buyers winning at auction, a single mum winning at auction, a family that had given up on a particular suburb that was able to buy in there. These are promising signs that the intent of the government’s efforts are actually being realised.
And don’t forget, this is not the only thing the government is doing. We have the boldest and most ambitious housing agenda that a Commonwealth government has had in this country for 70 years. We’re building more homes, we’re getting renters a better deal, and we’re getting many more Australians into their first home.