Labor MPs represent half of least affordable electorates in the country
The latest analysis from Anglicare Australia shows Anthony Albanese's electorate is among the top-20 least affordable in the country for someone on minimum wage or support payments.
Half of the 20 least affordable electorates are held by Labor MPs, while four of the six teal independents preside over electorates in the top-20 least affordable list.
'Across the country, there are 74 electorates without a single affordable rental for someone on the minimum wage,' Anglicare director Kasy Chambers said.
'The government spends eight times as much propping up private investors as it does on building homes for people who need them.'
'This approach is wrong and it's supercharging rents and house prices,' she added, referencing negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions.
Anglicare Australia publishes an annual health check of rental affordability.
Released on Wednesday, the latest edition shows in essentially half the electorates across the country (74 out of 151) there is not one affordable rental for a single person who's paid minimum wage.
The research looked at 51,000 rental listings across the nation in March and April.
Just three of these listings are affordable for someone on JobSeeker.
'These results show that housing cannot be left to the private sector,' Ms Chambers said.
'Voters are desperate for action. Instead, parties are promising more of the same.
'At best they are overlooking those who need the most help, and at worst, they are making promises that could overheat the market and push costs up.'
The research measures JobSeeker, age pension, youth allowance, minimum wage and parenting payments against the cost of renting a place to live.
Paying more than 30 per cent of your income on housing has become the benchmark for unaffordability.
In the Prime Minister's inner-Sydney electorate of Grayndler, not a single rental is affordable for people on JobSeeker, a couple on minimum wage with two kids or a single person on minimum wage.
One in every 500 rental listings is affordable for a couple on the age pension, the data shows.
Labor's Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones retired in January, and his Whitlam electorate south of Wollongong falls in the 20 least affordable electorates as well.
Nine of the 20 least affordable electorates are held by Labor.
Four Liberal Party MPs and one Liberal National Party MP preside over seats also on the 20-least-affordable list.
These electorates are Banks and Mitchell in western Sydney and Cook on the southern side of Botany Bay.
The members for Bradfield in northern Sydney and McPherson on the Gold Coast also make that list, but they are both retiring from politics at this election.
The bulk of the teal independent electorates also make the top-20 least affordable list.
Six teals were in parliament this term, though North Sydney MP Kylea Tink has to look elsewhere as her seat has been abolished.
Nonetheless, the Sydney teal seats of Warringah, Wentworth and Mackellar are among the least affordable in the country.
Melbourne's inner-south seaside seat of Goldstein is right there with them.
Mr Albanese's Labor colleagues preside over electorates that are wholly unaffordable for low income earners in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.
Greens spokesperson for housing and homelessness, Max Chandler-Mather, said the report was a 'red alert for renters,' and accused both major parties of not doing enough to help.
'It's now impossible for millions of renters to find an affordable home because both major parties have decided that the one third of people in this country that rent don't matter,' he said.
'Labor and the Liberals will give $180bn in tax handouts to property investors over the next decade - which all the experts say is turbocharging house prices and making this desperate situation even worse.
'For those renters, one rent increase away from homelessness, the Greens will keep fighting to cap rent increases and finally give the 7 million renters in this country protection from unlimited rent increases.'
While both parties have pledged major policies to boost rates of first home ownership, they have faced criticisms for not doing enough to help struggling renters.
On Tuesday, Mr Albanese was asked for his message to renters being hammered by consecutive rent increases, to which he said Labor had increased Commonwealth Rent Assistance by 10 per cent - $23 a fortnight - in the 2024-25 budget.
'We have increased rental assistance by 45 per cent (throughout our term). We are the first government since rental assistance came in to have consecutive real increases in rental assistance,' he said
Labor also says its election promise to uncap the First Home Guarantee scheme to people of all incomes, which allows first home buyers to buy a home with just a 5 per cent deposit, will allow more renters to enter the housing market.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
Laura Tingle on Netanyahu vs Albanese
Sam Hawley: The Israeli leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, says Anthony Albanese is a weak leader who has betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia's Jews. But do we really need to be in lockstep with Israel as it broadens its assault on Gaza? Today, global affairs editor Laura Tingle on the dramatic slide in relations. I'm Sam Hawley on Gadigal land in Sydney. This is ABC News Daily. Sam Hawley: Laura, Benjamin Netanyahu has begun the mission to take over Gaza City. He really isn't listening to any of the international condemnation, is he? Laura Tingle: He's not. And he's also not listening to an exceptional level of opposition to this manoeuvre within Israel either, Sam. I mean, we've seen those massive, massive protests in Israel. News report: There are thousands of Israelis who turned out for this protest, blocking off an entire street. This is the culmination of a day of action right across the country, not only in cities like Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, but in smaller locations as well. Laura Tingle: And there's a lot of, you know, anger and resistance to what he's doing there, but certainly there's no signs of him showing any interest in what the rest of the world says about either moving into Gaza City or, for that matter, further incursions into the West Bank. Sam Hawley: All right. Well, Laura, let's discuss now the stoush that is unfolding between Israel and Australia. The Israeli Prime Minister thinks our Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, is weak. Just tell me about this statement he put on X this week. Laura Tingle: Yes, he basically said that Anthony Albanese was a weak politician who had betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia's Jews. Now, this is an incredibly strong and very personal comment to be making about any other world leader and has followed a series of escalations or deteriorations in the relationship. Sam Hawley: All right. Well, the Prime Minister, in response to that, he was quite measured in what he said, wasn't he? Laura Tingle: He was. He basically said, no, he doesn't take any of these things personally and just refused to rise to the bait of having a go back. Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister: Well, I treat leaders of other countries with respect. I engage with them in a diplomatic way. I don't take these things personally. Laura Tingle: But Prime Minister Netanyahu has sort of gradually been ramping up the pressure on Australia and other countries about this and about suggesting that Australia had a, you know, quote, anti-Israel attitude. And it's not entirely clear why he thinks this is a good manoeuvre, apart from anything else, in Australia, we tend to have always taken all of these things very personally. And if some foreign figure has criticised Australia or the Australian government, it's gone straight in to be red meat into the Australian political debate. But I think it's interesting now that there's been this combination of things happen. One, I think the Prime Minister's now got his bearings and his sort of level of confidence up about dealing with foreign policy. And he's very measured in these sorts of circumstances, whether it's Israel or the US or wherever. But I think also the political mood in Australia has changed, I think, both towards Israel and also in terms of the sort of hysteria politics, if you like. I mean, some figures in the opposition have been trying to run this very hard and saying this is a gross failure on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's part. But it has not sort of developed the momentum that it might have once done a couple of years ago. Sam Hawley: Yeah, I was going to say the federal opposition leader, Sussan Ley, she thinks or says that the relationship has been badly mismanaged. Sussan Ley, Opposition Leader: We are seeing a relationship that has deteriorated and the consequences of that are not good. The Prime Minister needs to explain how he is going to get this relationship that he has so badly mismanaged back on track. Sam Hawley: But that might not be the view among the wider Australian population, you think? Laura Tingle: Well, no, I mean, polls confirm the idea that Australians' sympathy towards Israel and warm feelings towards Israel have been really hit hard by what has occurred in Gaza over the last 22 months, no matter how terrible the original attack might have been. But the actions of the Israeli government, as opposed to the Israeli people, have really lowered the sympathy level, if you like, towards Israel. So I think that's a really big difference. And I think just sort of saying that this is all the Prime Minister's fault doesn't really tally. It's sort of a bit akin with the sorts of comments that, for example, Prime Minister Netanyahu makes about Gaza, which seem to be at such odds with what people are seeing with their own eyes on television every night. Sam Hawley: Well, the Home Affairs Minister, Tony Burke, he did go a lot further than the Prime Minister in response to Netanyahu's comments. Tony Burke, Home Affairs Minister: Strength is not measured by how many people you can blow up or how many children you can leave hungry. Strength is much better measured by exactly what Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has done, which is when there's a decision that we know Israel won't like, he goes straight to Benjamin Netanyahu. Sam Hawley: Interesting, the peak Jewish body, the Executive Council of the Australian Jewry and its head, Alex Ryvchin, he's actually expressed concern about the wording by Netanyahu and by Mr Burke. He really is saying, take the heat out of this. Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australia Jewry: The Australian Jewish community is profoundly disturbed and concerned by the rapidly deteriorating state of relations between our government and the government of the state of Israel. There are serious issues to transact between the two governments, but none of this is served or advanced through this public exchange of insults that's taking place right now. Sam Hawley: That's important, isn't it? Laura Tingle: I think it's really important. And he's not the only leader of the Jewish community or the only Jewish association who has said these things. Now, Tony Burke was incredibly strong and you could hear the anger in his voice when he did the interview the other morning. But Australian Jewish figures are sort of very concerned about the backlash from Prime Minister Netanyahu's comments on their own community. So, you know, there's quite a deal of alarm about that. And in fact, somebody was telling me the other day that there had been some relief, even amongst sort of harder line people who've been very critical of the government, that the government had actually refused the visa of a far right member of the Knesset, Mr Rothman, from coming to Australia because they were concerned that it would once again just stir up anti-Semitic sentiment in Australia, which helps no one. So I think this was very significant. I mean, these groups, particularly the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, have been very critical of the government and of the Prime Minister for the last couple of years, saying that they haven't done enough to combat anti-Semitism. So they're not coming from a position where, you know, they're naturally aligned, shall we say, with the government. And the fact that they've come out and said these things, I think is telling, as is, Sam, the fact that the Israeli ambassador to Australia actually distanced himself from the Prime Minister's comments. It's pretty extraordinary. Sam Hawley: Yeah. So just on that issue of the visa refusal for this Israeli, I mean, he's a far right Israeli politician, Simcha Rothman. Would that have been a decision that would have angered Israel, do you think? Laura Tingle: Well, I think the timing's been interesting. I mean, if we just go back through the timeline a little bit, things have deteriorated, shall we say, since the government announced earlier this month that Australia would be recognising the state of Palestine when the UN General Assembly is on in New York later in September. Now, other countries had done that and Israel had been critical of those decisions, saying it played into the hands of Hamas. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister: To have European countries and Australia march into that, march into that rabbit hole and buy this canard is disappointing. And I think it's actually shameful. Laura Tingle: But this decision to cancel the visa seems to have tipped Mr Netanyahu over the edge into this really extreme language. But once again, I wonder the extent to which it's playing to a domestic audience using very sort of Trumpian language and the sorts of things that we see President Trump saying to his base about foreign policy issues as well. Sam Hawley: Well, Laura, Benjamin Netanyahu, he's now appeared in a Sky News interview in Australia where he's just doubled down on this criticism of Anthony Albanese. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister: But I think his record is forever tarnished by the weakness that he showed in the face of these Hamas terrorist monsters. You know, when the worst terrorist organisation on earth congratulate the Prime Minister of Australia, you know something is wrong. Sam Hawley: Interesting. All right. Well, Laura, let's then consider the history of our relationship with Israel. Of course, we've been closely associated with Israel since its founding after the Second World War. It's a really important relationship, isn't it, that Australia has? Laura Tingle: Well, it's an important relationship. And essentially, Australia played an absolutely crucial role in the founding of the state of Israel. We were the first country to vote in favour of the plan, even though the UK asked Commonwealth countries to abstain because, of course, this was about partitioning Palestine, which at that stage was a British colony. And we've continued to push the case for Israel in those international forums, defended Israel when it was seen to be under sort of unfair attack from other countries. So we've had a very strong relationship with Israel going right back to its absolutely formative days. Our view of Israel has gradually changed or our our sort of approach to Israel has gradually changed as it has made further and further incursions into land originally designated for the Palestinians. But the latter day rationale has always been, look, it's the democracy sitting in this sort of sea of non-democracies in the Middle East and the only functioning state and all those sorts of things. But I think the fact that the current government in Israel is so far to the right, plus all these charges in the International Criminal Court against both Prime Minister Netanyahu and other figures in the government, that the argument that it's a democracy we have to defend also looks a bit sad at the same time. Sam Hawley: What about then, Laura, social cohesion here? Netanyahu thinks Anthony Albanese has abandoned Australia's Jews. There has been concern about anti-Semitism in Australia. Could this be damaging? Laura Tingle: Well, I think as we've seen from comments from the Jewish community in Australia, they don't see it that way. You know, I think you mentioned the Executive Council of Australian Jewry's comments and they were saying that the suggestion that Mr Albanese has abandoned Australian Jews wasn't true, wasn't the sort of language they'd use, even though they've been critical of him and they don't think it helps. Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australia Jewry: We've expressed concerns for nearly two years now about some of the government's rhetoric and policies and handling of the anti-Semitism crisis. We've had serious misgivings and we've made them known, but we've never felt abandoned. We've always felt like we can speak to government and speak to the public of this country and make our case and make our appeal for a more harmonious society. But we've never felt abandoned by this government, no. Laura Tingle: So will it come back? Will the relationship come back? The question is what happens, I think, in terms of the domestic politics of Israel and what happens post Netanyahu. So, I mean, these are really important questions, but there's no reason to think that if Israel shows a more democratic approach in its internal affairs and particularly if its actions in Gaza don't continue and the West Bank, for that matter, don't continue to create outrage around the world, you know, I don't think Australians have any... They don't have any gripe with Israeli people. Sam Hawley: Laura Tingle is the ABC's global affairs editor. This episode was produced by Sydney Pead, Grant Wolter and Cinnamon Nippard. Audio production by Sam Dunn. Our supervising producer is David Coady. I'm Sam Hawley. ABC News Daily will be back again on Monday. Thanks for listening.
Sydney Morning Herald
5 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Netanyahu ignores pleas for calm and condemns Albanese, Australian protesters
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has waded further into Australian domestic politics, claiming Australia risked being engulfed in a 'tsunami of antisemitism', despite direct pleas for him to calm down from Australia's top Jewish community leaders. Netanyahu said pro-Palestinian protesters calling for a ceasefire in Sydney or Melbourne should be 'counteracted' in a Sky News interview on Thursday. 'If you don't stop [attacks such as on the synagogue] when they're small, they get bigger and bigger and bigger, and ultimately, they consume your society,' he said. '[Protesters] should be defied by the leaders. And yet we see – not in America, I'm happy to say, because President Trump is standing strong – but in Europe, one country after another succumbing to them, condemning Israel that is fighting these monsters and is doing its best to avoid civilian casualties.' Netanyahu also has labelled the burning of a Melbourne synagogue last year as part of a 'tsunami of antisemitism'. Since Hamas' October 7 attack on southern Israel, which killed about 1200 people, more than 60,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed, according to the latest estimates from Gaza's health ministry. Netanyahu did not escalate his bitter personal attack on Albanese during the Sky interview beyond comments previewed earlier on Thursday in which he branded the Australian 'forever tarnished' by his plan to recognise a Palestinian state. Netanyahu was condemned this week by Jewish groups and conservative MPs for a scathing social media post on Tuesday night that called Albanese 'weak' and accused him of abandoning Israel and Australia's Jewish community.
The Age
5 hours ago
- The Age
Netanyahu ignores pleas for calm and condemns Albanese, Australian protesters
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has waded further into Australian domestic politics, claiming Australia risked being engulfed in a 'tsunami of antisemitism', despite direct pleas for him to calm down from Australia's top Jewish community leaders. Netanyahu said pro-Palestinian protesters calling for a ceasefire in Sydney or Melbourne should be 'counteracted' in a Sky News interview on Thursday. 'If you don't stop [attacks such as on the synagogue] when they're small, they get bigger and bigger and bigger, and ultimately, they consume your society,' he said. '[Protesters] should be defied by the leaders. And yet we see – not in America, I'm happy to say, because President Trump is standing strong – but in Europe, one country after another succumbing to them, condemning Israel that is fighting these monsters and is doing its best to avoid civilian casualties.' Netanyahu also has labelled the burning of a Melbourne synagogue last year as part of a 'tsunami of antisemitism'. Since Hamas' October 7 attack on southern Israel, which killed about 1200 people, more than 60,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed, according to the latest estimates from Gaza's health ministry. Netanyahu did not escalate his bitter personal attack on Albanese during the Sky interview beyond comments previewed earlier on Thursday in which he branded the Australian 'forever tarnished' by his plan to recognise a Palestinian state. Netanyahu was condemned this week by Jewish groups and conservative MPs for a scathing social media post on Tuesday night that called Albanese 'weak' and accused him of abandoning Israel and Australia's Jewish community.
