Public money should be used to create construction jobs and tackle homelessness by building public housing, not to lift house values for people who can already afford large renovations.
We should build homes for the hundreds of thousands of people who are homeless or on public housing waiting lists, not hand out granite benchtop grants.
More than a million people are in housing stress, about to default on their mortgage, or on public housing waiting lists, but Scott Morrison is using public money to make the problem worse.
Everyone deserves the dignity of a safe and secure home. However, this package will make that a more distant goal for millions of people. It will make housing inequality worse in Australia.
Through this scheme, a couple on $200k a year with no mortgage could turn their $1.4m home into a $2m+ mansion. Meanwhile, a single parent on the public housing waitlist will see the median house price drift further out of reach.
Over 116,000 people face sleeping rough each night, but instead of putting a roof over their heads, Scott Morrison has decided to hand out granite benchtop grants to people with incomes and wealth high enough to weather the corona crisis.
Perversely, Labor’s saying the grants are too restrictive and don’t allow people to upgrade their swimming pools. Instead of backing big government investment in public housing, Labor is calling for the superannuation industry to build homes, which will do little to address the growing public housing waiting lists.
If Labor’s only contribution to fixing this appalling policy is to secure the inclusion of lap pool grants, they will have comprehensively abandoned working class people in Australia.”
