Michael Sukkar MP

INTERVIEW WITH STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, 2CC TALKING CANBERRA

THE HON MICHAEL SUKKAR MP – SHADOW MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES, NDIS, HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS

TRANSCRIPT

INTERVIEW WITH STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, 2CC TALKING CANBERRA

Tuesday, 31 January 2023

TOPICS: HOUSING, HELP TO BUY SCHEME

E&OE

Stephen Cenatiempo

It’s fair to say that the current Federal Government came to the election, well, with not a lot of policies and that’s I think why they’re finding it so difficult to actually implement an agenda now. But one of the key pillars of their election strategy was this ‘Help to Buy’ Shared Home Equity Scheme. Now, I’ve had a problem with this since they announced it that, you know, the Government’s going to own part of your home and then if you sell it, you know, ten, twelve, twenty years down the track, they’ll take their share of the appreciated value, which is going to put you behind the eight ball when you try to buy into the market because you always buy into the same market that you sell in. That’s the reality of it. So whilst it might get you into a cheap home now, unless you’re going to stay there forever, it’s going to cause your problems at the back end. But it appears that this flagship housing affordability package is falling apart before it even begins. To talk to us more about this, the Federal Opposition housing spokesman Michael Sukkar, is with us.

Michael Sukkar

Good morning, Stephen. Good to be with you.

Stephen Cenatiempo

Now, this thing has blown its budget already before it even starts. How do you blow the budget on something before you actually implement it?

Michael Sukkar

Well, I think the budget was blown from the beginning is the reality, Stephen. The Labor Party costed this policy quite disingenuously at sort of $329 million, which didn’t take into account the billions and billions of dollars of taxpayer contribution that would be required in order to own up to 40% of these homes. Now shared equity schemes like this are not new, They’re typically fairly niche. They’re not a wholesale solution to housing affordability issues. They are only suitable for a very, very small number of people because as you rightly point out, Stephen, those who want to buy a home want to own it themselves. They don’t want the government owning a portion. And there are so many unanswered questions of this policy that were unanswered during the election. The Prime Minister didn’t feel the need to answer those questions during the election. So, for example, if you own a property jointly with the Government, you’re responsible for all the repairs and maintenance on the home. Yet when you sell the home, the government comes and takes, as you say their proportion of the appreciated value. So, I mean, I would have thought if you jointly own a home and you go and spend a couple hundred dollars at Bunnings on materials to, you know, do some running repairs on the home, do you send an invoice to Anthony Albanese to pick up his share of that cost? Well the reality is that’s not how the scheme will operate. The owner takes all the responsibility and then the Government takes it at the end. The other thing, Stephen, that this policy, which I think is why in the end very few people will take it up, is if you get a pay rise and move out of an income bracket that qualifies you to be part of the scheme – the Government has not made clear that you wouldn’t then be forced to sell the home. Yeah, so a disincentive to, you know, maybe do a few extra hours or, you know, if you get that promotion at work, all of a sudden you’re going to be turfed out of your home by the government.

Stephen Cenatiempo

This, of course, ties into a broader conversation about housing affordability and the government announced this housing accord that they’d put together. And look, on the face of it, not a necessarily not necessarily a bad idea, but a hell of a lot of moving parts that rely on so many other entities other than the federal government to make it work. And I mean, I look at the experience here in the ACT where we’ve got a Territory government that is hell bent on tying up land release and keeping supply as low as possible. I don’t see how any of these federal government schemes can actually work.

Michael Sukkar

Well, look, in reality, the so-called housing accord is a is an agreement for a schedule of meetings. I mean, that’s all it is. They’ve agreed to sit down and meet with States and Territories to discuss these issues, the same issues that have been discussed for a very long time. As you quite rightly say, the ACT being a prime example of really slowly drip feeding out land release presumably because the Labor Party over the last couple of decades has walked away from home ownership. They don’t see home ownership as a crucial part of being an Australian citizen, and the Coalition disagrees. When I was Housing minister, we saw first home buyers get to their highest levels in nearly 15 years. Indeed, at our peak in the last term we had 180,000 first home buyers or close to 180,000 in a year, up from about 100,000. So we’re now seeing those numbers trend back down because Labor’s not committed to home ownership and we’re seeing it now with this so-called ‘Help to Buy’ scheme, which was supposed to have commenced on the 1st of January. We’ve heard nothing and we don’t know when the proposed start date is. So it’s I think, a bit of a dud programme that’s going to, you know, it’ll help a very, very small number of people who are happy to own a property jointly with the government, even with all the issues that will entail. But it will not help the vast majority of people who want to own their own home.

Stephen Cenatiempo

The great Australian dream, as it were. Michael, pressure is on this morning. Thanks so much. Michael Sukkar is the Federal Opposition Housing spokesperson.