Taxation

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Chandler ) (16:41):  The Senate will now consider the proposal from Senator McGrath, which is also shown at item No. 12 of today's Order of Business:

Pursuant to standing order 75, I give notice that Pursuant to standing order 75, I give notice that today I propose to move 'That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The need to protect the family home from Labor's "spare bedroom" tax.

Is consideration of the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: With the concurrence of the Senate, the clerks will set the clock in line with the informal arrangements made by the whips.

Senator McGRATH (Queensland) (16:42): I move:

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

The need to protect the family home from Labor's "spare bedroom" tax.

The 'spare bedroom' tax came from Labor's productivity round table last week, and I use the words productivity and round table in the broadest sense possible. In fact, there was a table there, it was slightly round, and there was productivity there, but it was defined by the lack of productivity rather than anything positively adding to Australia's economy. Never in the history of humanity have so few people uttered so many words to achieve so little apart from proposing so many new or higher taxes.

What we saw last week was a three-day talkfest that achieved very, very little for the Australian people. But what it did show was that within the beating heart of this Labor government is a desire to increase taxes and bring in new taxes. We know this because, out of that 'productivity round table'—in inverted commas—a lot of proposals for new and higher taxes were put forward. In questions to the Treasurer or ministers in the Senate today, the word that was the loneliest word, the word that was not uttered by the ministers or indeed the Treasurer, was the word 'no'. So, when questions were put to the ministers, whether Senator Wong or the other ministers sitting on the front bench, asking them to rule out new or higher taxes, the word 'no' did not enter. It did not come on stage left or stage right. You will not find the word 'no'—those letters N and O—in Hansard at all during question time. Because the Labor ministers refused to—failed to—rule out the introduction of newer and higher taxes.

The one that Australians should be particularly concerned about is the tax on your spare bedroom. An idea that came out of the 'productivity roundtable' from last week is for there to be a tax on your spare bedroom. This is an outrageous attack on Australian families, and it is an outrageous attack on the family home, because few things are so sacrosanct to Australians as their desire, their right and their willingness to have some bricks and mortar or some timber and iron to call their own home—whether it is an apartment block or on a bit of dirt on the outskirts of Warwick where my place is.

What Labor want to do—they're refusing to rule it out, which is really quite suspicious when you think about it—is not rule out a tax on the spare bedrooms in your family home. Think about this. You might have a two- or three-bedroom home. You might have raised your family there. The kids have left and you've got a couple of spare bedrooms there for when their grandkids come or the cousins who you haven't met for a few years come along. But, no, Labor want you to be taxed for those spare bedrooms.

Just imagine this. You wake up at night because there is a bit of a nightmare going on: not only have you got a lot of red tape in your bedroom, thanks to what Labor have done to productivity in this country, but you've got Jim Chalmers in your bedroom because he wants to tax all the spare bedrooms in your house. This should scare the living daylights out of Australian people. This is what we in the business call a 'milk curlder'. It is a milk curdler of an idea, and the fact that the Labor government will not rule it out should say to every Australian—I challenge the speakers coming after me to say in very clear words, enunciate your words, shout your words, annunciate the words that rule out attacks on the spare bedrooms of Australians. Rule that out. It did not happen in question time today.

The danger is, where will this go? Where will this tax end up in terms of the war on Australian families, who are dealing with a cost-of-living crisis and dealing with a government who quite frankly have given up on caring about them because the election was a few months ago and they've got the votes of them. Now they're going to tax Australians. They're going to increase taxes. Rule it out.

Senator HODGINS-MAY (Victoria) (16:52): I rise to speak on the coalition's matter of urgency motion. This is nothing more than a scare tactic by the coalition to distract us from their genuine lack of a solution to the housing crisis. Instead of talking about the tax rorts fuelling the housing crisis—negative gearing and the capital gains discount—the parliament is wasting time making up tax changes to debate. Crocodile tears and scare campaigns aren't going to house anyone. On the other side of the chamber, Labor continue to tinker around the edges, pledging to bring forward their home deposit scheme, which experts agree will only turbocharge house prices and saddle first home buyers with even bigger debts. We need real action on housing, not tinkering or scaremongering. Scrapping the tax breaks for property investors to push up the price of housing, however, just might start to ease the crisis which both sides of this chamber are responsible for creating.

In my home state of Victoria, any chance of addressing the housing and homelessness crisis is being bulldozed, literally. The Victorian Labor government plans to demolish all 44 public housing towers and displace over 10,000 residents. Handing property developers special deals and selling off public land will only make the housing crisis worse. Labor know this; they held an inquiry where experts and tenants told them exactly that. Imagine sitting here in Canberra talking passionately about the housing crisis while both major parties support the demolition and privatisation of literally every public housing tower in Melbourne.

You know what stops homelessness? Public housing. You know what brings down the cost of rents? Public housing. You know what the government has a responsibility to provide? Public housing. Yet, instead of investing in the public housing we so desperately need, the major parties are wasting this parliament on furphy taxes while fast-tracking laws to fund homes for US troops under AUKUS. Labor and the coalition are choosing to side with foreign powers and corporate interests instead of people who need a safe and affordable home and roof over their heads.

I'll be here with the tenants, the renters, the housing unions and my Victorian Greens colleagues, fighting this disgraceful abandonment of public housing tenants every step of the way. The Greens will be fighting to scrap negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount. We will be fighting to stop selling off our public housing. We want to make big corporations and fossil fuel giants pay their fair share so we can put affordable roofs over people's heads.

Senator ROBERTS (Queensland) (16:55): I thank Senator McGrath for this motion, which One Nation supports. This government is flooding the country with new arrivals who need a bed to sleep in. Home construction is 500,000 homes behind, and this figure is not reducing; it's growing. A sensible party would simply impose a moratorium on new buildings until housing catches up. That's One Nation policy.

This, though, is not a sensible government nor an honest government. The roundtable received a proposal to force Australians with spare bedrooms to take in new arrivals or pay a penalty tax. Elderly Australians living in their family homes, with children moved out and bedrooms galore, are terrified of this idea. Current best practice is for the elderly to stay in their homes for as long as possible. Now they are to be turfed out through taxation and forced into retirement homes. In answer to my question on this topic to Minister Gallagher yesterday, I did hear a qualified denial. The minister did not rule the idea out, though; rather she used vague words like, 'The proposal was not raised while I was in the room.' Really? That's not a clear statement. The idea must be dismissed and never considered again.

I would raise this simple question: what's a bedroom? Does 'bedroom' mean any room that can be used to house a new arrival? Studies, rumpuses, garages turned into granny flats? Who will make these decisions? SBS, who promoted the idea, has clearly never watched Doctor Zhivago, a movie depicting life under Soviet rule, which depicted this very thing. The Soviets actually did this, so it's an idea with precedent. Will the government include compulsion in addition to taxation? Will all those Australians who are buying their homes under Help to Buy or government guaranteed mortgages, who have the government as the shareholder or guarantor on the mortgage, be forced to comply? Will they? Who knows, because no-one is saying. They won't deny it. I call on the Prime Minister to rule out any new taxes on the family home, including land tax, bedroom tax and grave tax.

Senator HENDERSON (Victoria) (16:57): This is a matter of urgency because the radical proposal to tax spare bedrooms in family homes in a bid to fix the housing crisis has sparked widespread outrage across this country. Today there was an opportunity—Senator Walsh is over there laughing, thinking it's a laughing matter. Senator Walsh, this is no laughing matter.

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Chandler ): Order, Senator Henderson! Senator Ciccone.

Senator Ciccone: I was just about to raise the very point of order that you are addressing now. Comments should be directed through the chair, not directly at senators across the aisle.

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: You are reading my mind, Senator Ciccone. Senator Henderson, I will remind you that your comments should be directed to the chair.

Senator HENDERSON: I was doing so. I was making the point that Senator Walsh is laughing, and this is no laughing matter. This is no laughing matter, because the proposal to tax the spare bedroom to solve the housing crisis in this country was not ruled out today by this government.

We have today put to the government that if it opposes this scheme, this crazy idea which was one of the many controversial tax plans voted by industry leaders and economists during last week's Economic Reform Roundtable, then why hasn't the government ruled this out? We know that this government is coming after the money of Australians. Labor promised cheaper power, more homes, free visits to the doctor and lower taxes. Instead we see bills going up, housing targets missed, out-of-pocket costs skyrocketing and new taxes on the table. This is the cost of Labor—higher living costs, weaker growth and declining living standards and productivity. Why do you think we had the productivity roundtable? This was simply cover for this hopeless, incompetent government which for three years has told Australians that everything is fine. Now, after the election, we hear the cries for reform, that everything is not going so well. Now it seems that everything is on the table, courtesy of the government's roundtable.

I do note with concern Senator Hodgins-May's contribution, where she raised serious concerns about the Victorian Labor government's incapacity to invest in sufficient social housing. But something else is happening in Victoria, and that is attacks on the primary place of residence for anyone with significant business activity. Because land tax thresholds have dramatically reduced, Labor is now charging Victorians with home based businesses land tax on their own home if they make just $30,000 using a portion of their own home to do so. This affects startups, side hustles, freelancers, hairdressers, PTs, physios with home studios, Airbnb hosts, online businesses and allied health workers. Labor is coming after your home if you are a Victorian and you run a small business in Victoria. What an absolute disgrace. This has caused huge controversy in my home state. We are already seeing what this government is capable of, what Labor is capable of, through what they are doing in Victoria. They are going after people's homes.

If this is such an abhorrent idea, I ask why the government has failed to rule out this proposal here today. We've got the Prime Minister at odds with the Treasurer. The Prime Minister has insisted the government will not implement any new taxes before the next election, which is due in May 2028. So he's just sitting in his hands. The Treasurer, Mr Chalmers, has a very different view. He will not rule out introducing new taxes in the next budget, declaring that it remains to be seen. Now, of course, off the back of a study which showed that just over 60 per cent of houses are lived in by one or two people, with more than three-quarters of properties with three bedrooms or more, the Labor Party is opening the gates to the discussion about a spare bedroom tax. Labor has form in coming after your own home. They are doing it in Victoria for anyone trying to run a small business in their own home. Now they are failing to rule out a spare bedroom tax here in this chamber, and that is to be condemned. (Time expired)

Senator CAROL BROWN (Tasmania) (17:02): What have we got here in this so-called urgency motion? This urgency motion shows us what the opposition have decided will be their agenda going forward, and that is scare campaigns. That is what this is all about. They haven't got any policy, they haven't done any work and they haven't learnt from the election result, so what they've done is wrap up a few scare campaigns. I can assure anyone that may be listening that this will be the first of many scare campaigns that the opposition will put to us today.

Why do they have to do that? Because this is an opposition with no housing policy, no housing plan and no credibility when it comes to addressing housing pressures across the country. When those opposite were last in government, they didn't even have a housing minister. Not once in nine years did they show the leadership needed to tackle housing affordability. Not once did they take responsibility for the growing challenge of supply. They spent their time building excuses, not homes. Now, from opposition, they want to come in here and lecture a Labor government that is actually delivering for Australians. This is the same opposition that has latched onto a so-called spare bedroom tax idea and dressed it up in a motion that is really just a scare campaign.

This spare bedroom tax idea is an idea that did not come from government and is not under consideration, yet those opposite continue to push it, misrepresenting our work and trying to scare Australians. It is a dishonest distraction. The truth is that, if the opposition had their way, we would still be stuck with the same neglect we saw for nearly a decade—a decade where housing approval slowed, planning reforms stalled and investment in social and affordable housing fell off a cliff. They left Australians with a shortage of hundreds of thousands of homes.

By contrast, this Labor government sees housing as one of the defining economic and social challenges of our generation. That's why we are investing $43 billion in new housing measures—real action that is already delivering results. More than half a million homes have been built since we came to government. Building approvals are up almost 30 per cent in the past year. Dwelling commencements are up 14 per cent. Costs are stabilising, and the construction sector is gaining momentum. Just this week, we brought forward one of our signature housing policies—five per cent deposits for first home buyers. Originally set to begin in early 2025, the scheme will now start on 1 October this year. From that date, all first home buyers will be able to buy a home with a deposit as low as five per cent, without paying tens of thousands of dollars in lender's mortgage insurance. For a young couple in the northern suburbs of Hobart, where the house prices are around $650,000, a five per cent deposit means they need just $32,500 to buy their first home. Under the old system, saving a 20 per cent deposit would have taken them years longer, and then they would have had to pay about $20,000 in mortgage insurance on top. This is about turning the dream of homeownership for Tasmanians into a reality sooner and with less financial strain.

So what have we got here today? We have an opposition that has come into this chamber with a urgency motion that really is just a scare campaign. They should be ashamed. They've come in here, they've done no work, and they've latched on to an idea that someone else has put out there that is not even under consideration by this government. (Time expired)