Housing and Accommodation Policy

The Importance of Affordable Housing and Accommodation:

Housing is one of the necessities of life. For the Christian Democratic Party a family home is more than just a material asset. It is central to family life and the raising of the next generation. It is also essential for the disabled, the poor, the aged and other marginalised groups.

The CDP rejects the increasing accepted notion that home ownership is ‘only for the rich’ and that less wealthy West Australians ‘will just have to get used to the idea that they will always be renters’.

The Christian Democratic Party believes that, in the first instance, the best government housing policy is one which encourages and does not burden people providing for their own basic housing needs.

The CDP will work to remove existing unwarranted state government taxes and policies that hinder West Australians, particularly the less well-off, from owning their own home.

The CDP accepts however, that for some, home ownership will always be beyond their financial reach. The CDP believe that these renters should not be ‘left behind’ and should benefit from targeted tax concessions.

The CDP also sees a role for government in collaboration with church and community groups in addressing housing and accommodation issues associated with aged care accommodation, crisis accommodation, transitional housing and disability housing.

The CDP will pursue policies to ensure government housing funding is delivered to those most needing it and is not absorbed by bureaucracy. Consequently, the CDP is wary of the expansion of the state bureaucracy.

Social Decay and Homelessness:

The CDP laments the adverse effects of social and legislative changes that began in the 1960’s and their direct link to homelessness.

For instance so called ‘divorce law reform’ and changed attitudes towards the permanency of marriage have seen a dramatic increase in the rate of marital breakdown. Marital breakdown is the short route to poverty and homelessness.

Similarly, liberalised drug laws and softer social attitudes toward illicit drugs have resulted in increased rates of mental diseases. Many of the homeless are mentally damaged as the direct result of illicit drug use.

The CDP wants to correct this social and political agenda that has done enormous harm to our society and inflicted much pain and anguish upon individuals.

State Regulations Restricting Land Supply

Although much of the media speculation about housing affordability focuses on home loan mortgage rates, in reality it is the price of a house that is the most important determinant of affordability.

So called ‘mortgage stress’ is much more closely related to the amount borrowed rather than a few percentage point changes in the cost of borrowings.

Housing affordability as measured by the various housing affordability indicia is currently at a low level.

In the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s the median house price was around three times the median household income. Today in Perth it is more than six to eight times the median household income.

The traditional link between house prices and incomes has been broken because of an astronomical rise in the price of the land component of the median house price while the building component of housing costs have tended to follow inflation.

Land once represented 25% of the cost of a new house and land package, it is now 60% or more.

The so-called land shortage that has caused this astronomical rise in the cost of land is largely the product of state government planning regulations and zoning restrictions.

Home buyers have been squeezed by an ‘urban planning plague’ designed by governments to return windfall profits to government land development corporations in preference to maintaining a supply of affordable land for home buyers.

The CDP supports changing the focus of government agencies involved with the release of residential land from profit making to creating affordable land.

The CDP supports a review and where necessary amendment or repeal of all government regulations which contribute to limiting the release of housing of land, reduce competition in the market and add to the cost of housing land when it is finally released onto the market.

Zoning legislation should be reviewed to allow nodes of higher density around transport and shopping hubs to cater for more mixed development.

The CDP supports stronger land tenure rights for the owners and tenants of land to prevent arbitrary damage being done to their rights by any level of government and a just compensation scheme for government caused damage. For example, adequate compensation to land owners for forced heritage listing of properties, density down zoning and compulsory restrictive changes in the use of land are just some of the issues that need to be addressed.

Taxes:

As with the provision of basic food, all levels of government are obliged not to ‘load-up’ housing with unjust taxes and regulations.

Federal, state and local governments have seen ordinary people trying to purchase their family home as a taxation opportunity and loaded them with onerous taxes and regulations. Hidden and obvious government taxes and charges account for between 11 – 17% of the purchase price of the average house.

Given that the state government has returned to it almost all of the GST monies collected in Western Australia, the most efficient way for it to assist home buyers would be to abolish stamp duty and all other state taxes on housing.

The CDP supports making home interest payments tax deductible up to a determined level of interest payment for means tested threshold household income levels.

Additionally the CDP supports tax deductibility for rental payments up to a means tested and capped level.

The CDP continues to support capital Gains Tax Exemption for the principal place of residence.

Decentralisation:

The CDP also supports reducing the demand for residential land in capital cities by encouraging decentralisation of populations to regional centers through taxation and other government incentives to industry, small business and home buyers.

Rental Accommodation:

In addition to means tested and capped tax deductibility of rent payments the CDP wants to see a West Australian version of the Federal Government’s National Affordable Rental Incentive whereby special tax incentives are provided to developers if they build low cost rental accommodation. Such a scheme would supplement the Federal Scheme.

The CDP supports direct taxpayer funding of a range of accommodation types for people who are genuinely unable, not merely reluctant, to provide for their own accommodation.

However, the CDP has a preference for collaboration between the state, church and community groups as the preferred vehicle for delivering this assistance. The CDP wants to see tax payer funds spent on assistance goes to where it is needed the most and not absorbed into growth of the bureaucracy.

First Home Owner Shared Equity Schemes:

The CDP also supports shared equity schemes whereby the state government assists with borrowing in exchange for some equity in the property and limited to applicants who could not otherwise purchase their own home.

Aged Care Accommodation:

The CDP supports tax and means tested direct financial incentives and the removal of unnecessary state and local government regulatory obstacles to ensure that, where possible, families are able to care for older relatives at home.

Many nursing homes are struggling to survive financially. Part of this burden is directly attributable to the cost of compliance with nursing home regulation. The CDP supports increased levels of government funding for nursing home places for individuals who are genuinely unable to fund their own nursing home place. At the same time the CDP would like to see the state review its own regulations with a view to modifying or removing regulations that discourage private sector involvement in provision of aged care facilities.

The CDP is concerned that some not for profit organisations are currently forced to pay local Government rates and taxes levied on their aged and supported care facilities. As these facilities accept residents from across Western Australia the CDP feels that the state government should accept responsibility for the payment of these local government charges.

Crisis Accommodation:

The demand for crisis accommodation is largely driven by people with mental health, drug and alcohol issues. The CDP sees a role for state government in coordination of early intervention measures by government agencies, hospitals, police and church and community groups.

Caravan Park and Camp Site Residents:

For various reasons many people become permanent residents of caravan parks and camp sites.

However, the media frequently reports incidents of these people being forced off their caravan park sites and unable to find suitable alternative sites.

The CDP believes that the state government must ensure as a matter of priority that there is a program of compensatory release of land suitable for caravan park developments when existing caravan parks are redeveloped.

Disability Housing:

To be eligible for the Community Disability Housing Program people with a disability must be in receipt of funding for accommodation support.

In 2001 a review of the Accommodation Support Funding (ASF) indicated that fewer than 10% of those requesting ASF were successful.

The present situation has not changed significantly since 2001 and with an ageing population the number of West Australians expected to have a disability is expected to increase.

CDP therefore supports a regular review of the number of disability support packages funded by the state.

Recently Released Prisoners:

The accommodation plight of recently released prisoners has been largely ignored by the Labor Government. Only about 10% of recently released prisoners are able to be helped by government agencies in respect to their housing needs.

The CDP however is concerned for the welfare of recently released prisoners and will seek to assist their reintegration into the community and reduce recidivism by advocating for more suitable short term transitional accommodation.