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Speaking before Parliament on Thursday night (31 March), the Leader of the Opposition said in his budget reply that the Labor Party has “a real plan for growth and prosperity”.
Anthony Albanese’s plan centred in on aged care reforms, subsidised childcare, more opportunities for training and the creation of jobs while also homing in on investment into cheap, renewable energy, Australian-made goods, services, and industries, and investment in infrastructure.
What was not so publicised was the party’s plan for Australian property.
CPA Australia’s general manager Dr Jane Rennie has acknowledged that “if elected, a Labor government will take the reins in arguably the most torrid economic conditions since the seventies”.
She shared that the current situation “requires an economic approach which maintains sufficient flexibility to respond to once-in-a-lifetime crises, like [the] war in Ukraine and COVID-19”.
From her perspective, the budget reply “really only provides a ‘back of the envelope’ sketch of Labor’s economic approach”.
“This doesn’t give Australians a complete picture of the Opposition’s policies leading into the election,” she considered.
Despite the lack of a complete picture, Mr Albanese had previously unveiled a pledge to maintain the current First Home Loan Deposit Scheme as implemented by the current government, with the addition of an extra 10,000 places for regional residents and a caveat that it would review price caps for locations every six months.
It’s also been widely reported that negative gearing will not be up for contention at the upcoming election, with the Labor Party affirming to the REIA that it would not make any changes to the policy, if elected into power.
Labor also intends to create a $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, if elected, as initially revealed last year.
According to Mr Albanese, this “will build 30,000 new social and affordable housing properties in its first five years, and create thousands of jobs”.
According to a statement revealing the fund, investment returns from this fund would be transferred to the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation (NHFIC) to pay for social and affordable housing projects.
It was outlined that over its first five years, the investment returns could build around 20,000 social housing properties – 4,000 of which would be allocated to women and children fleeing domestic and family violence and older women on low incomes at risk of homelessness.
Approximately 10,000 affordable homes would also be allocated to frontline workers such as police, nurses and cleaners.
A portion of investment returns would also be available to fund acute housing needs, such as $200 million for the repair, maintenance and improvements of housing in remote Indigenous communities, $100 million for crisis and transitional housing options for those fleeing domestic and family violence and women at risk of homelessness, $30 million for housing and services for veterans who are either homeless or at risk of homelessness.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Grace Ormsby
Grace is a journalist across Momentum property and investment brands. Grace joined Momentum Media in 2018, bringing with her a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Communication (Journalism) from the University of Newcastle. She’s passionate about delivering easy to digest information and content relevant to her key audiences and stakeholders.
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