08-04-2024: Australia’s housing crisis has reached record levels and is becoming notorious internationally. Home ownership, what was once known as “The Great Australian Dream” is now out of reach for millions. The Greens have commissioned data from the parliamentary library which revealed the average borrower would need to earn $164 400 – more than $66 000 above the average income – every year to pay off a standard mortgage without falling into housing stress.[1] Housing stress is defined where a person spends 30% or more of their income on housing. The national average salary in Australia is currently $98 218,[2] but the majority of workers earn incomes substantially below this amount. The required income to afford a mortgage for a regular home in Australia’s capital cities is staggering. Sydney tops the list at $293 578, followed by Canberra at $205 073. Melbourne is at $189 962, Adelaide at $163 627, Brisbane at $178 090 and Perth at $140 313. Hobart is at $148 948, while Darwin brings up the rear at $124 339.[3] Needless to say, those on these incomes are not struggling with the cost of living and represent a small minority of society as a whole.

Overvaluation

For most young people, let alone those subsisting on social security, even a place to rent is difficult to come by. Rental affordability is at its lowest point since the data for this began to be collected in 2008. Wages have not kept pace with rent increases, which have increased by 38%[4] since the start of the fraudulent “pandemic”. Rents increase in relation to house prices, as neoliberal governments for the last 35 years have privatised or sold off much of its public housing stock. Median house prices in the capital cities are almost unbelievable. The median house price in Sydney is $1 053 000, in Melbourne it is $797 000, in Brisbane it is $797 000 and in Adelaide it is $709 000. In Perth it is $651 000, in Canberra it is $828 000, while in Hobart it is $664 000 and Darwin it is $481 000. The national average house price stands at $761 000.[5] These prices, often for homes between 40 and 70 years old, are way overvalued.

The deterioration of a structure over time should degrade its value, but with housing treated as a commodity almost the same as any other, the value of properties increase regardless of their condition. 50 years ago, average house prices in the Australian capital cities were between 20 and 30 thousand dollars.[6] Today, even with inflation over time, we are looking at modest homes coming at a cost of half or three quarters of a million dollars. Unaffordable housing and unaffordable rents for the majority inevitably causes homelessness, as those who struggle are thrown onto the streets, often for reasons entirely beyond their control. There have been calls for the abolition of negative gearing (the ability to offset losses from taxable income) and capital gains tax, which currently is a 50% discount on capital gains from property sales. There is little doubt that the 50% discount on capital gains led to an explosion of people buying investment properties since it was introduced in the early 2000s.[7] However, this was never on the agenda for the Labor and Liberal parliamentary parties. It is the case that the Greens have pledged to phase out negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount and have called for a two-year rent freeze and 2% caps on rent increases after that. However, the Greens have capitulated to the ALP (Australian Labor Party) government recently on housing. After making a huge song and dance about blocking the ALP’s Housing Australia Future Fund (which would supposedly build a vastly inadequate 30 000 “social” housing units), the Greens rolled over and passed it with a few minor amendments.[8]

War at home and abroad

The dire housing crisis is a product of the current crisis of capitalism, and for all their reforming rhetoric, the Greens are as pro-capitalist as the major parties. More than this, the Greens and the ALP were the strongest enforcers of state repression during “Covid”, a period of fascistic terror against working people. There were a couple of dissenting voices from the Liberal Party against lockdowns and vaccine mandates, but overall, it was also a part of the deliberate shutdown of huge swathes of the economy. Hundreds of thousands were thrown out of their jobs, while millions of others reluctantly took the dangerous shots in an effort to stay employed. One result was a partial genocide, with many simply perishing or suffering painful and ongoing injuries.[9] By this alone, one cannot make a case that the Greens are interested in the health and welfare of the people, for housing or any other issue.

Moreover, the Greens, the ALP and the Liberal Party are at one when it comes to imperialist war. The world faces the daily risk of World War III erupting, with the West and its allies endlessly provoking Iran, Russia and China. The housing crisis is but the tip of the iceberg, yet the housing and cost of living crisis being experienced “at home” is inextricably linked to the Covid lockdowns and the ruling elites of the West pushing the world to a catastrophic conflagration. In the Middle East, the US state and its European allies are trying to draw in Iran to a regional war, while continuing to arm and fund “UkroNazi” battalions in a losing war against Russia. The West is simultaneously preparing for a war on the People’s Republic of China (PRC), via outrageous provocations in the South China Sea, and edging Taiwan to declare “independence”. The West continues to militarily and politically back the Israeli state as it continues its murderous onslaught against Palestinians, civilian or otherwise.

What is required is an anti-war movement which links the housing and cost of living crises with the ever present danger of world war. Many have mobilised to defend Palestine against the Israeli bombardments, but the so-called left which leads these actions in the West limit their horizon to Palestine only. This is largely because this “left” actually stands with imperialism with its diabolical aims for regime change in Iran, Russia and China. They claim to be anti-Israel, yet they do not oppose Israeli air strikes on Iran or Syria. This faux left must be superseded by a genuine anti-war movement, which defends the non-imperialist bloc against the ruling classes of the West, and which seeks to mobilise workers in their own interests. Politically, workers need their own leadership, which must take the form of Marxist vanguard parties welded to the struggle to overthrow capitalist exploitation. Only revolution can bring an end to precarious housing, relentless wars and other scourges.

Workers League  

www.redfireonline.com 

E: workersleague@protonmail.com

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[1] www.msn.com/en-au/money/homeandproperty/eye-watering-salary-needed-to-buy-a-home/ar-BB1kQcj9 (03-04-2024)

[2] www.10play.com.au/theproject/articles/australians-need-an-average-salary-of-164400-to-buy-a-house-in-a-capital-city/tpa240401dxjgh (03-04-2024)

[3] www.pedestrian.tv/news/housing-affordability-annual-income-2024-chandler-mather/ (03-04-2024)

[4] www.pedestrian.tv/news/rental-affordability-17-year-low/ (03-04-2024)

[5] www.realestate.com.au/insights/proptrack-home-price-index-february-2024/ (03-04-2024)

[6] www.savings.com.au/home-loans/australian-house-prices-over-the-last-50-years-a-retrospective (03-04-2024)

[7] www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-02/what-is-negative-gearing-why-is-it-controversial/103489372 (03-04-2024)

[8] www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/sep/11/greens-support-labor-housing-australia-future-fund-albanese-government (03-04-2024)

[9] www.redfireonline.com/2024/01/29/excess-death-cover-up-as-western-mortality-rates-spike/ (03-04-2024)

Image: Belongings of people without a home under a bridge in South Brisbane. http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au