The Treasurer Jim Chalmers says those concerns and the global economic uncertainty will be a priority of the government’s second term. As Alan Kohler explains, there are economic challenges at home that could prove more pressing.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00The election campaign started with housing but drifted down to the petrol station and
00:14then the shopping centre.
00:15But on May the 5th, when the streamers have been swept up and the Star Wars DVDs are back
00:20in the cupboard, it'll be back to housing, and here's why.
00:25The average house to income ratio is back to a record high of eight times, more than
00:28double what it was 25 years ago, and more than half the average income is now required to
00:34service a new mortgage.
00:37These things make housing Australia's most pressing problem.
00:41Check this out.
00:42It's the total value of dwellings compared to GDP in Australia, the UK, Canada and the
00:47United States.
00:48It's even more striking when you compare the value of housing to gross household disposable
00:53income.
00:54Now election promises designed to help some first home buyers get around this won't cut
00:59it now.
01:01This is now about the hard, unglamorous and thankless grind of government, spending the
01:07next three years buried in the weeds of construction, infrastructure, local councils, immigration
01:14and tax.
01:15Income tax cuts, some of the budget repair that we've done, the big investments in housing,
01:19the energy transformation and particularly in healthcare.
01:23This is an ambitious government and we're looking forward to implementing the agenda that we
01:27took to the election.
01:28And while half the cabinet is doing that, the other half will need to do the other big thing.
01:32Productivity.
01:33Here's a reminder of that.
01:35The productivity deficit has a lot to do with having so much of our money sitting in unproductive
01:39housing.
01:40But it's not just that.
01:42Fixing Australia's productivity will also be hard, unglamorous and thankless.