The Greens NSW have proposed a new state based banking levy, the NSW Bank Levy for Affordable Housing, that would see $450 million in revenue raised each year to help improve the lives of people across the state to address housing inequality and build social housing.
Similar levies to the proposed NSW Bank Levy of 0.06% were supported by the ALP in South Australia and passed the lower house in that State while a similar proposal recently had support from the Western Australian Treasurer.
Abigail Boyd, Greens Upper House candidate, and banking regulation expert, said: "For years the big banks have profited from the over-financialisation of our housing market while Australian families have been incurring ever increasing levels of debt.
"The banks have been raking in super profits and paying their CEOs and executives hundreds of millions of dollars, all the while engaging in scandalous misconduct as found by the Royal Commission.
"The NSW Bank Levy for Affordable Housing will go some way to rebalancing our housing market by forcing the banks to give back to the community, helping to fund 300,000 zero carbon affordable homes.
"The Greens are the only party who will make the banks pay a fair share. As the party that doesn't accept donations from the banks, we can't be bought and we will always stand with the community," Boyd said.
Jenny Leong MP, Greens Housing spokesperson and Member for Newtown said: "The system as it stands is broken, and we believe that this levy, almost comparable to the total salaries of senior executives at the big banks annually, is a critical lever to address housing reform holistically.
"This proposal is the sort of thing that's required to support those who simply cannot get into the housing market and those living in, or hoping to be living in, social housing.
"The NSW Bank Levy for Affordable Housing will require the big banks to hand back some of their mega-profits to the community. It will fund the development of 300,000 new affordable homes.
"Delivering 300,000 new social housing dwellings over the next 10 years is one part of the solution to addressing the housing crisis - beyond this we need specialist aboriginal, youth and disability housing, significant rental reforms and a genuine housing first approach when it comes to homelessness." Leong said.
Read our Universal Social Housing plan here: https://greens.org.au/nsw/homes
