Mr BAYLEY (Clark) – Deputy Speaker, I thank Prof Razay for bringing forward this matter of public importance. It is, indeed, a very important matter. As has been said, housing is a fundamental human right and it’s our responsibility as a state to provide that right to our people. It’s not only a responsibility because it is a right, it’s not only something we need to deliver because that is the expectation. It’s actually an investment in the future. We know that people who have safe, secure, adequate housing are more productive. They’re more productive in the workplace and in the school environment. Children go to school, they study better, they are more settled.
We know that safe secure housing is also a critically important preventative health measure. Professor Razay touched on some of the health-related issues in terms of the housing crisis driving insecurity, health issues, mental health issues and other wellbeing issues. Not only is providing adequate housing a responsibility of us as a parliament and for the government, but it is an investment in the future.
For too long now we’ve seen the government consistently fail to deliver enough to meet these expectations. There are noble aspirations when it comes to building 10,000 new public and affordable homes by 2032, but we consistently fail to deliver against that. Instead of acknowledging that failure and addressing it by investing more in housing, the government over the last years has resorted to fudging the figures, making sure that crisis accommodation, for example, and vacant land are included as part of the reported data in relation to the target of 10,000 new and affordable homes.
A new and affordable home is not crisis accommodation or vacant land. This is something that Homes Tasmania and the government seriously need to address. There are 5336 applicants on the waiting list. More than that number are actually waiting on a house, waiting –
Sitting suspended from 1.00 p.m. to 2.30 p.m.
Continued from above.
Mr BAYLEY (Clark) – Honourable Speaker, before the lunch break I was talking about the housing waitlist of 5336 people and those people waiting 100-plus weeks. We have a situation with Homes Tasmania where it is racking up debt now to build houses and not build enough of them, where previously we would build them from within government itself.
Of course, the housing crisis is not just about public housing; it is about managing the private rental market as well, because when people can’t afford to be in the private rental market, that pushes them towards public and social housing or, indeed, into homelessness. That’s why we need to see rental affordability measures and measures to deal with rent stress, action on rent control, ending no-cause evictions and minimum standards so that houses that people live in actually meet their needs.
Short-stay accommodation needs to be reined in. We need to deal with short-stay and the loss of whole homes from the private housing market. The 5 per cent levy that was promised two elections ago from government has now been kicked down the road until next year. That’s going to cost the Budget $22 million. An election commitment that could have delivered $44 million over two years is now going to only deliver $22 million and that’s being put into stamp duty relief.
On this day I would be negligent not to talk about housing in the context of the debate about the stadium and the investment, because at $375 million in government investment and $490 million in Macquarie Point borrowings, we are going to be servicing debt to the tune of $50 million or more every single year. We’re not going to be paying that out of a surplus because there is no surplus in the foreseeable future. The surplus that the Treasurer identified last Thursday is an absolute mirage. This $50 million to service the Macquarie Point stadium debt is something that we’re going have to borrow to service, so we’re getting out the credit card to pay the interest bill on this stadium. It’s utterly untenable.
The previous master plan for this site identified significant volumes of housing, 15,000 square metres of housing on the Macquarie Point site. In the current proposal there is absolutely zip. We are short-changing our people in regard to housing when it comes to the Macquarie Point stadium because it will cost us dearly.
