Ms SACILOTTO - 2007-05-01
You have said today that helping Territorians get into their own homes is a major priority of our government. You have laid out a plan in today’s budget for achieving this. Can you advise how the government’s plan will work?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for …
Ms Carney: For the one in 100 people who can buy that house.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STIRLING: It gets a bit tiresome, Madam Speaker; it is only the first day and only the third question. I do thank the member for Port Darwin for her question, because she is one who had input in and around this decision of where we might go coming out of the property market. As she was closely involved before her time in politics, she is one whom I would give credit for having more understanding than the collective wisdom of the other side in these matters.
The budget outlines the most comprehensive plan for helping Territorians get into their home ever put in place by a Northern Territory government. We have reduced stamp duty drastically for first homebuyers. We have broadened HomeNorth with a particular emphasis on those young families with children. We will release land in Palmerston and Alice Springs. There is a pledge within that future release of land that first homebuyers will have some of those areas reserved for them.
The effect of lifting the stamp duty tax-free threshold to $350 000 means that 85% of first homebuyers in the Northern Territory will pay not one cent of stamp duty. The government will give back to first homebuyers up to $15 312. That is a significant reduction in the cost of a home. It allows those first homebuyers to then furnish, fit-out, whitegoods, whatever. It is good for retail as well because it is money back in the pockets of the consumers rather than the pockets of government.
The HomeNorth scheme has been lifted significantly. For families with children, the income level has increased to $70 000 and, to ensure we keep pace with housing costs, the property value limit is 85% of the median-priced house. In Darwin and Palmerston, that is approximately $310 000. The Leader of the Opposition can scoff and say: ‘I could only find one house’. We believe that somewhere between 10% and 15% of houses and 76% of units are falling into that cap. We have lifted the government equity available to purchase by government up to $70 000. We have kept the 2% deposit. We have kept the $10 000 interest-free loan for getting started.
HomeNorth has put almost 1000 people into homes since 2004, and is the most generous scheme in Australia. We have put in place a land release program which will strike the right balance - again, something you need to give close consideration to - between existing demand out there and the threat of over supply, which no one wants to see.
Bellamack has the capacity for 600 blocks. Mt John Valley has strong capacity. Land will be reserved in each of those releases for first homebuyers. We also recognise that not every Territorian will be able to buy their own home. That is why we continue with the public housing program - $113m for building, upgrading and repairing public housing, the biggest ever. That is what this government is doing about housing. The Leader of the Opposition, in those terrifying ads …
Mr Henderson: Scary!
Mr STIRLING: They scare the kids, I tell you.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STIRLING: My grandson is in Queensland and if he had seen this, my daughter would never get him to sleep. ‘What is Clare Martin going to do?’ she says – frightening! Well, I will tell you, we are not doing - and this is the same people; talk about persistency who said: ‘Too many public servants! You have to get down the numbers. You have to attack those fat cats!’ They are going to create a bureaucracy of fat cats similar to DHA, to roll out a program that magically reduces house pricing for first homebuyers by $100 000. I am not sure of the numbers of first homebuyers in the market. I believe it is somewhere between 1000 and 1200 a year. That is $120m bang up on the budget - $120m if it is between 1000 and 1200 a year for first homebuyers.
She is also going to build, as I said, another layer of bureaucracy to run this. To run, organise and develop a housing corporation - who is that competing with? That is competing with the private sector that is already out there doing this every day of the week, and that part of the economy that does these things quite well. It will be a massive bureaucracy, similar to Defence Homes, underwritten by government, out there in competition with the private sector. What could be more inefficient and unproductive use of $120m at least of taxpayers’ money each year? If the opposition understood with any depth at all what was happening in the economy, they would know and recognise that private industry does this job very well. Private industry does the job of developing very well indeed without any need for a massive government corporation.
Second, we are not going to flood the market with the release of land that would undervalue and bring house prices crashing down around everyone’s heads ...
Members interjecting.
Mr STIRLING: The Opposition Leader asks: ‘What is Clare Martin going to do? I am going to save first homebuyers $100 000’. What she does not do is tell all those existing homeowners out there: ‘I am going to drive down the value of your property. I am going to drive down your lifetime savings that you have sunk into that property. I am going to destroy the equity that you have in your own home’. Homeowners beware, the opposition wants to make your house worth $100 000 less. Territorians will look back at Budget 2007-08 and they will thank God that it was this government in place and not the opposition.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for …
Ms Carney: For the one in 100 people who can buy that house.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STIRLING: It gets a bit tiresome, Madam Speaker; it is only the first day and only the third question. I do thank the member for Port Darwin for her question, because she is one who had input in and around this decision of where we might go coming out of the property market. As she was closely involved before her time in politics, she is one whom I would give credit for having more understanding than the collective wisdom of the other side in these matters.
The budget outlines the most comprehensive plan for helping Territorians get into their home ever put in place by a Northern Territory government. We have reduced stamp duty drastically for first homebuyers. We have broadened HomeNorth with a particular emphasis on those young families with children. We will release land in Palmerston and Alice Springs. There is a pledge within that future release of land that first homebuyers will have some of those areas reserved for them.
The effect of lifting the stamp duty tax-free threshold to $350 000 means that 85% of first homebuyers in the Northern Territory will pay not one cent of stamp duty. The government will give back to first homebuyers up to $15 312. That is a significant reduction in the cost of a home. It allows those first homebuyers to then furnish, fit-out, whitegoods, whatever. It is good for retail as well because it is money back in the pockets of the consumers rather than the pockets of government.
The HomeNorth scheme has been lifted significantly. For families with children, the income level has increased to $70 000 and, to ensure we keep pace with housing costs, the property value limit is 85% of the median-priced house. In Darwin and Palmerston, that is approximately $310 000. The Leader of the Opposition can scoff and say: ‘I could only find one house’. We believe that somewhere between 10% and 15% of houses and 76% of units are falling into that cap. We have lifted the government equity available to purchase by government up to $70 000. We have kept the 2% deposit. We have kept the $10 000 interest-free loan for getting started.
HomeNorth has put almost 1000 people into homes since 2004, and is the most generous scheme in Australia. We have put in place a land release program which will strike the right balance - again, something you need to give close consideration to - between existing demand out there and the threat of over supply, which no one wants to see.
Bellamack has the capacity for 600 blocks. Mt John Valley has strong capacity. Land will be reserved in each of those releases for first homebuyers. We also recognise that not every Territorian will be able to buy their own home. That is why we continue with the public housing program - $113m for building, upgrading and repairing public housing, the biggest ever. That is what this government is doing about housing. The Leader of the Opposition, in those terrifying ads …
Mr Henderson: Scary!
Mr STIRLING: They scare the kids, I tell you.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STIRLING: My grandson is in Queensland and if he had seen this, my daughter would never get him to sleep. ‘What is Clare Martin going to do?’ she says – frightening! Well, I will tell you, we are not doing - and this is the same people; talk about persistency who said: ‘Too many public servants! You have to get down the numbers. You have to attack those fat cats!’ They are going to create a bureaucracy of fat cats similar to DHA, to roll out a program that magically reduces house pricing for first homebuyers by $100 000. I am not sure of the numbers of first homebuyers in the market. I believe it is somewhere between 1000 and 1200 a year. That is $120m bang up on the budget - $120m if it is between 1000 and 1200 a year for first homebuyers.
She is also going to build, as I said, another layer of bureaucracy to run this. To run, organise and develop a housing corporation - who is that competing with? That is competing with the private sector that is already out there doing this every day of the week, and that part of the economy that does these things quite well. It will be a massive bureaucracy, similar to Defence Homes, underwritten by government, out there in competition with the private sector. What could be more inefficient and unproductive use of $120m at least of taxpayers’ money each year? If the opposition understood with any depth at all what was happening in the economy, they would know and recognise that private industry does this job very well. Private industry does the job of developing very well indeed without any need for a massive government corporation.
Second, we are not going to flood the market with the release of land that would undervalue and bring house prices crashing down around everyone’s heads ...
Members interjecting.
Mr STIRLING: The Opposition Leader asks: ‘What is Clare Martin going to do? I am going to save first homebuyers $100 000’. What she does not do is tell all those existing homeowners out there: ‘I am going to drive down the value of your property. I am going to drive down your lifetime savings that you have sunk into that property. I am going to destroy the equity that you have in your own home’. Homeowners beware, the opposition wants to make your house worth $100 000 less. Territorians will look back at Budget 2007-08 and they will thank God that it was this government in place and not the opposition.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016