25 November, 2025
The Hon. R.A. SIMMS (12:30): I rise to speak on the Help to Buy (Commonwealth Powers) Bill. This bill will enable the commonwealth government's Help to Buy shared equity homebuyer's scheme operate in South Australia. The bill sounds good in theory, but one must also always look at how things work in practice. The Greens have raised alarm about the potential for such a scheme to allow first-home buyers to put down a minimum deposit of just 2 per cent of the purchase price of a new or established home, locking them into a debt of up to $900,000 in the Adelaide metro area or up to $500,000 outside.
Lower deposits are certainly a welcome initiative, but this is not a long-term solution to the housing crisis. What we really need is the government to develop a suite of policies that take this crisis seriously. That is why the Greens have been calling for an investment in public housing and for developers to step up and play much more of a role. We would move to increase the requirements for public, social and affordable housing in new builds from 15 per cent to 30 per cent. But the government needs to step up and put some money on the table for housing, and it also needs to make the reforms necessary to get our rental market under control. That means, of course, having a rent cap and it means, of course, finally ending the practice of rent bidding in South Australia.
We are in a housing crisis. We also need the federal government to look seriously at negative gearing and at capital gains tax benefits and the massive tax handouts that are providing huge windfalls to investors. Simply trapping first-home owners into a life of debt and luring people in with low deposits is not something that will be a long-term solution to the housing crisis. I urge the government to do better than this and to come to the table with a much more comprehensive housing policy.