Housing affordability moves ‘symbolic’
Professor Nicole Gurran, director of the Henry Halloran Trust in the School of Architecture, Design and Planning, said the housing measures announced in last night’s Budget were “disappointing” and “largely symbolic”.
“While extending support for low-deposit, first-home loans may be popular, it’s poor policy and will do nothing to address the systemic barriers driving falling home ownership,” Professor Gurran said.
“Worse, some households may be enabled to take on high loans just when interest rates are predicted to rise.
“There are no real measures to support new supply.
“Extending the amount available for non-profit providers to borrow via the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation will support an estimated 10,000 new social housing units but the grant funding required to service these loans remains missing in action.
“Further, despite the Commonwealth’s professed concern about supply constraints, private-sector housing approvals have reached all-time highs – while new social housing construction continues to fall.
“Calls to extend the Commonwealth Rental Housing Assistance subsidy appear to have been ignored, leaving around half a million recipients in housing stress.”
Workforce changes could worsen women’s load
Professor Marian Baird, head of the Discipline of Work and Organisational Studies and co-director of the Women and Work Research Group at the Business School, had mixed views about the Budget’s impact on working women and their families.
“The Budget’s change to the Paid Parental Leave scheme risks entrenching gendered care divisions further, even while trying to be more flexible,” Professor Baird said.
“The removal of the Dad and Partner Pay Scheme and folding that into the PPL scheme means there is now no way to ‘nudge’ men to take parental leave. As the payment is at the National Minimum Wage level and not at income replacement, and as there is already cost-of-living pressures on households, it is likely that new fathers will not share the parental leave with their partners because they will lose too much income.
“The change in the income test from the woman’s individual income of $151,000 to a household income threshold of $350,000 per year is significant - it is potentially good for some couples, but may also exclude other women from accessing the PPL scheme.”
