Housing Minister Clare O'Neil's promise to deregulate home building won't fix the housing crisis, according to Australian Greens Housing and Homelessness spokesperson, Senator Barbara Pocock.
As stated by Greens spokesperson for housing and homelessness Senator Barbara Pocock:
"Today's leaked Treasury advice shows that this Government has caved to demands of the property lobby. Labor needs to be careful they're actually tackling the housing crisis, not just doing the bidding of property developers who want to make more money.
"We need more housing built more quickly but what we don't want is poor quality housing in bad locations. There is a dire need to lift productivity in the housing sector but we must be very careful undertaking reforms in this area to avoid greenlighting shoddy developers who will deliver substandard dwellings in inappropriate settings.
"Many of these regulations are in place to protect consumers, protect the environment and to make our urban areas more liveable. We can't afford to lower our standards on safety and sustainability as we try to improve efficiency. Giving robots control over environmental approvals is not the answer.
"The housing crisis in Australia can't be solved simply through deregulation. We urgently need to wind back tax breaks for wealthy property investors, such as the capital gains tax discount and negative gearing, to open up a pathway for first home buyers.
"These tax breaks make home ownership unaffordable for too many Australians and turbo charge intergenerational inequality. We need action on housing but we need the right set of policy solutions to ensure equity and liveability in our urban environments.
"If the Government doesn't tackle the tax handouts to rich property investors, they are not tackling the housing crisis. Unless the Government makes the necessary reforms to the tax concessions for property investors, we'll continue to see house prices rise and rents spiral and we'll continue to see levels of homelessness increase, which advocacy groups have said is the worst in living memory. The Greens stand ready to work with Labor to action this urgent reform.
"Ahead of the Government's productivity roundtable, it's disappointing that the outcomes have already been decided. We've had public debate in good faith on how to boost productivity, and deregulation alone won't cut it. Labor must deliver on essential tax reform to deal with the housing crisis, ensure workers get their fair share and strengthen flexible working arrangements for women and carers."
