Image: NSW Opposition Leader Mark Speakman delivers his 2023/24 NSW State Budget reply speech, 21 September, 2023. Photo: Dan Himbrechts/AAP).
By KELLY O’HARE
In an odd move, the NSW opposition has presented a housing policy which would see home purchasers over the age of 55 exempt from paying stamp duty.
Opposition Leader Mark Speakman delivered his formal budget reply to state parliament last Thursday. In a speech addressing Australia’s pressing housing crisis, he announced a housing policy that would exempt property buyers aged 55 and over from paying stamp duty. This initiative is designed to incentivise empty nesters to downsize their homes and increase the housing supply for younger families.
The proposal rewards wealthy elderly Australians – a portion of the population the Liberal Party likes to maintain a strange hold over.
In his address, Speakman highlighted the importance of bridging the generational gap and supporting one another.
“We have an opportunity for one generation to support another, so these are some policies that will tackle supply, improve housing affordability, and reduce the stress on rents,” Speakman said in his speech on Thursday.
Speakman outlined his proposed strategy for utilising the projected $14 billion windfall in tax revenue under the Minns Labor Government and critiqued the Minns government, stating “this is a budget of missed opportunities from a government lacking vision.”
NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey told City Hub, “What Mr Speakman is proposing is that those without a home get to pay a land tax forever and those with a home get a tax cut.”
This response comes on the heels of Treasurer Daniel Mookhey’s announcement of Labor’s first budget in over a decade. The budget includes a detailed $2.2 billion Housing and Infrastructure Plan, but the strategy has attracted widespread criticism from housing activists.
In his budget speech, Mookey stated, “this Budget treats our schools and hospitals, our railways and roads, as assets to revitalize, not liabilities to neglect.”
“This budget builds more homes amidst a housing crisis. It funds more essential workers for our essential services. It rescues the energy transition with additional investment. It aids disaster-hit cities and regions with help to repair.”
Premier Chris Minns affirmed, “this package will be a boost to social and affordable housing and will help break cycles of homelessness.”
In response to Labor’s housing Package, the NSW Liberals issued a statement expressing concerns.
They remarked, “it’s strange that the Government would put $70 million towards accelerating the delivery of social and affordable homes, primarily in regional New South Wales, when just last week they cancelled much-needed projects in regional NSW like the Argyll Estate redevelopment.”
Housing policy in Australia has reached a tipping point, marked by Opposition Leader Mark Speakman’s proposal to combat the housing crisis and Treasurer Daniel Mookhey’s assertion that housing and infrastructure investments are integral components of Labor’s new budget.
