Housing & Social Policies: Each Party’s Plan For Where & How You’ll Live

LABOR

• $329m Help to Buy scheme (over four years) which will see the government contribute equity to help eligible low and middle-income Australians purchase a home (40% for new homes, 30% for existing homes)
• Committing to continue the existing First Home Guarantee scheme
• $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund to build 30,000 new social and affordable housing properties in its first five years (20,000 social housing properties and 10,000 affordable homes for pandemic frontline workers like police, nurses and cleaners.) Each year investment returns from the Fund will be transferred to the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation (NHFIC) to pay for social and affordable housing projects – including repair and maintenance of housing in remote Indigenous communities, and housing for veterans at-risk of homelessness.
• $1.7 billion dollars for housing victims of domestic and family violence. Of this, $1.6 billion is allocated to building 4000 social housing properties specifically for victims of family violence, and the remaining $100m is for transitional housing for victims of violence and those at risk of homelessness
• Setting up the Regional First Home Buyer Support Scheme, helping 10,000 first home buyers in regional Australia buy a home in 2023 with only 5% deposit (will cost $12m in its first year)

LIBERAL

• A new Super Home Buyer Scheme, allowing first home buyers to take up to 40% of their superannuation (capped at $50,000) to use for a house deposit. The buyers must have at least 5% of their deposit saved up, and the scheme is not restricted by income level
• Doubling places in the Home Guarantee Scheme to 50,000 – allowing people to buy a property (under a price cap) with only 5% deposit
• Increased the amount that people can withdraw from their superannuation to use as a house deposit (First Home Super Saver Scheme) to $50,000 (previously $30,000).
• Expanding the First Home Guarantee by providing 35,000 places each year, up from 10,000 per year – helping people build or buy a new home with a 5% deposit.
• Adding 5000 places per year to the Family Home Guarantee – allowing single parents to buy a home with only 2% deposit
• Establishing the Regional Home Guarantee with 10,000 places to support homebuyers in regional Australia.
• Helping over 60s downsize by allowing them to use the sale of their home to add to their superannuation (up to $300,000) – this reduces the tax they pay on the sale, while encouraging them to downsize to a small home

GREENS

• Build one million publicly-owned, affordable and sustainable homes
• $7 billion in grants to improve existing homes with sustainable heating and cooling upgrades
• Establish national standards for renters rights (these currently vary by state). This would include caps on rent increases and eliminating ‘no-grounds’ evictions
• $30m increase in funding to tenants advocacy services

LABOR

• Both Labor and Liberal parties agree they will not increase the JobSeeker rate – keeping it at $46 a day

LIBERAL

• Both Labor and Liberal parties agree they will not increase the JobSeeker rate – keeping it at $46 a day

GREENS

• Raise all income support payments to a minimum of $88 per day (which is the current poverty line). This includes: increasing Youth Allowance by $347 per week; raising disability support pension, crisis payments and parenting payments to $1232 a fortnight.
• Stop mutual obligation requirements for job seekers, and lower age of eligibility for JobSeeker to 18 (down from 22)
• Lower pension age to 65 (currently 66 years and six months)
• Increase number of permanent Centrelink staff to 5000

LABOR

• Investing an extra $2.5bn to fix the aged care sector by fulfilling the recommendations of the Aged Care Royal Commission. This includes better food for residents of aged care facilities; creating an Aged Care Commissioner to handle complaints; a compensation scheme for proven complaints; transparency requirements on how facilities spend funding; criminal penalties for management that cover up abuse of aged care residents.
• Fund a 25% wage increase for aged care workers
• Require all aged care facilities to have a registered nurse on site 24/7 – creating 60,000 jobs

LIBERAL

• $70m to increase the income thresholds to give 50,000 additional people access to the Seniors Health card
• $49.5m for training for current and future aged care support workers

GREENS

• $6b each year to transform the aged care sector, including: increase care hours per resident; introduce staff minimums; increase aged care worker wages by 25%
• Phase out all for-profit providers
• $260m into the home care package, to ensure there is no wait list
• Ending the use of physical and chemical restraints in aged care

LABOR

• Invest $5.4 billion to make child care cheaper from July 2023. This would include lifting the maximum child care subsidy rate to 90% for the first child in care; increase subsidy rate for families who earn less than $530,000 with only one child in care; increase subsidy for outside school hours care.

LIBERAL

• Increase the childcare subsidy by 30% for second and subsequent children in care (aged five or under), up to a maximum rate of 95%
• Remove annual subsidy cap of $10,655 for families earning over $190,015

GREENS

• Invest $19 billion into the child care industry to ensure early childhood education and care is free and accessible for all
• Increasing access to early childhood education to 24 hours a week, for all 3 and 4 year olds
• Prioritise early learning for First Nations children through support for First Nations community-controlled services
• Phase out for-profit early learning,in favour of government-provided or not-for-profit services.