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Barnaby Joyce slammed for ‘lecture’ on housing
The Australian 12:00am January 26, 2017
Sarah Martin
Barnaby Joyce has stoked the political fight over housing affordability by declaring that Australians locked out of the housing market should consider moving to regional areas where property is cheaper, despite there being no jobs in those areas.
Expressing frustration at the debate over housing affordability in Sydney and Melbourne, the Deputy Prime Minister said people should consider “other parts of Australia”.
“I get annoyed when people talk about that the only house apparently that you can buy is in Sydney and it’s too dear,” he told ABC Radio.
“Houses will always be incredibly expensive if you can see the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge; just accept that.
“Sydney’s wonderful and so is Melbourne. The trouble is so many people think it’s wonderful that the price of houses is incredibly expensive. But there are other parts of Australia.”
Backing Mr Joyce’s call for decentralisation, Craig Kelly, the Liberal MP for the southern Sydney seat of Hughes, said the government should consider shifting federal government departments out of the Sydney CBD to give people the choice of living and working in regional areas.
“The housing affordability issues that we have in Sydney don’t exist in our regional towns, so we need to make sure that we are giving people every opportunity to consider the option of relocating to a regional centre,” Mr Kelly told The Australian.
“I think many people given the opportunity would jump at it.”
Labor seized on Mr Joyce’s comments to accuse the government of being out of touch, and said it was not realistic for people to move to areas where there were not enough jobs.
“It’s time for this government to actually act,” Labor’s Treasury spokesman Chris Bowen said.
“Instead of lecturing people, instead of telling people to get a better job or get rich parents or move to Charleville, this government should actually have a housing affordability policy.
“It should deal with negative gearing.”
New Assistant Minister to the Treasurer Michael Sukkar, who was given responsibility for the issue of housing affordability in this week’s reshuffle, said the government was focused on housing supply, and sharpened his attack on Labor.
“The evidence is clear, Labor’s housing tax is bad for first-home buyers, bad for renters and bad for jobs in the building industry,” Mr Sukkar said. “Rest assured the government is dedicated to addressing these issues and working with state and territory governments to do the same.”