Easing the Financial Pressure

“Mr Howard and Mr Costello should give their excuses and the blame-game a rest and get back to work with policies to put downward pressure on inflation and interest rates.” – Bob Debus

While the economy has been going well, many families are feeling the impact of new household pressures. Macquarie families have been hit hard by higher mortgage repayments, food prices, petrol, education and childcare. And yet Mr Howard says working families have "never been better off". In Macquarie, many hard-working families find it difficult to reconcile talk of economic prosperity with their own household budgets.
Labor is committed to keeping taxes as low as possible to maximise incentive for those people who are working hard and keeping the economy strong.  Bob Debus and a Labor Government will help ease the financial burden on families by keeping the Budget in surplus on average over the economic cycle and maintaining the independence of the Reserve Bank.

Labor’s practical proposals to ease the pressure include:

1. Ensuring taxation does not increase as a proportion of GDP
2. Keeping a permanent watch on petrol prices by appointing a Petrol Commissioner to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)
3. Giving the ACCC the power to monitor grocery prices and publish regular price surveys
4. Establishing a $500 million Housing Affordability Fund to save up to 50,000 new home buyers up to $20,000 on their home
5. Establishing a $603 million National Rental Housing Affordability Scheme to provide new rental housing to 50,000 middle and low-income families at 20 per cent below market rents
6. Creating an Office of Work and Family which will publish local child-care fees, vacancy data and parental reviews

Macquarie Housing Crisis

Recent interest rate rises were a significant blow to local families whose budgets are already stretched to the limit by record high mortgage repayments and cost of living pressures.

As well, a new report shows housing costs in the Blue Mountains have soared. The Urban Development Institute of Australia revealed that the median cost of a home in the Blue Mountains rose from $230,000 in 2001 to more than $350,000 in 2006.

The housing affordability crisis has now spread far beyond the fringes of Sydney.
Bob Debus described the situation as a vicious blow for young people hoping to buy their first homes.

“The double-whammy of another interest rate rise and soaring home prices will lock even more first-home buyers out of the market,” said Bob. “The Howard Government has presided over nine interest rate rises in a row.

“These interest rate increases will affect all families with a mortgage. And let’s not forget these are the very same families that John Howard said recently ‘have never been better off’.

“After 11 years, John Howard has lost touch with working families.”