Australian Greens Housing spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has expressed alarm at the figures released today from the Australian Bureau of Statistics from their Residential Property Price Index. The release shows that there was an overall 6.7% rise in house prices for the June 2021 quarter with Sydney and Canberra experiencing an unprecedented rise of over 8%.

Senator Faruqi said:

Another week marking homelessness is another week marking lack of action by the government to reduce homelessness. People wait for over a decade to access public housing in some parts of Australia, while hundreds of thousands of people seek help from homelessness services each year. The last census showed us that over 100,000 people are without a home on any given night. We are now approaching another census, and homelessness and the housing crisis has just been growing.

Australian Greens Housing spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has responded to the latest data on median property prices in this week’s Domain House Price Report, with Sydney’s median house price now over $1.4 million and Melbourne over $1.0 million.

Senator Faruqi said:

“Millions of people are being robbed of housing security and housing affordability. This is nothing less than intergenerational theft.

The Greens have labelled it ‘Labor’s great leap rightwards’ as the ALP drops progressive policies like negative gearing and public dental while moving to support the Liberal’s radical right-wing flat tax policy. 

New costings by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office revealed this week show an incredible gender and income bias in the benefit of proposed stage 3 tax cuts (full tables below):

Australian Greens Housing spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has responded to Labor’s move to dump its commitment to winding back negative gearing.

Senator Faruqi said:

“This is a cowardly and pathetic backflip. House prices and rents are skyrocketing, and Labor is throwing fuel on the fire.

“In the middle of a housing affordability crisis, Labor has caved to wealthy investors and the Liberals. This is a shocking move and a betrayal of young people in particular.

The Greens have welcomed the release today of the Nowhere To Go report by Equity Economics, which finds that a significant build of social housing would support thousands of women and children fleeing family and domestic violence.

The report underscores the urgent need for a massive expansion in public and community housing, which the Greens continue to advocate for.

Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Greens spokesperson for Housing, said:

I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

There is a housing crisis in Australia and the Morrison Government is refusing to fix it.

There is a housing crisis in Australia and the Morrison government is refusing to fix it. In fact, there is a very deliberate strategy by the coalition to appear to be doing something about the housing crisis, while ignoring the very policy settings that have brought us to this point.

I rise to briefly speak on the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust Amendment Bill 2021. The bill will implement various recommendations of the review of the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust conducted in 2019. The central finding of the review was that the trust should become an ongoing entity, retaining responsibility for the sites. This bill does give effect to this.

Australian Greens Housing spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has said that the national housing crisis can no longer be ignored, as new data reveals that residential property prices rose 5.4 per cent in the March quarter alone.

Senator Faruqi said:

“Australia is facing nothing less than a full-blown housing crisis.

“People just want a place to live and call home. That’s it. But for more and more people, this is like something of a fantasy.

Australian Greens Housing spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has said that Labor’s plan doesn’t go nearly far enough to tackle the housing crisis, slash waiting lists and provide universal housing.

Senator Faruqi said:

“The scale of the housing crisis requires serious ambition and unprecedented funding. Labor has missed the mark on that front.