Sunrise presenter Nat Barr says she fears her adult children will be unable to buy a home amid Australia’s housing crisis.
The star’s comments during the Hot Topics segment on Wednesday’s show come as Labor is perched to reintroduce its Help To Buy bill to parliament this week after the Coalition and the Greens united last month to delay the legislation in the Senate until November.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Housing Minister Clare O’Neil and Coalition Senator Jane Hume on Sunrise.
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The proposed $5.5 billion scheme is intended to help 10,000 Australian workers annually to buy their first home, with the government taking a 30 per cent share of an existing home or 40 per cent of a newly built property.
It will be limited to individuals on $90,000 a year or less and couples earning up to $120,000 a year, and will only permit the purchase of houses up to the value of $950,000 in Sydney, $850,000 in Melbourne and $700,000 in Brisbane.
However, in return for their support the Greens had demanded a suite of other reforms such as a rent freeze, more investment in public housing and a winding back of tax concessions for property investors, such as negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts.
This week the SMH reported some of those demands had been walked back, but the Greens were now concerned those accessing the scheme would be placed in mortgage stress and that the salary limits were too low and are still pushing for rent caps.
However the government is expected to reintroduce the bill, potentially setting up a double dissolution trigger if the proposed laws are rejected by the Senate once again.
“It’s a really important piece of legislation. I’m hopeful that the Greens will see sense and come in and help us move this forward,” Housing Minister Clare O’Neil told Sunrise during the Hot Topics segment on Wednesday.
But Opposition finance spokeswoman Senator Jane Hume slammed the proposed laws as “bad legislation”.
“The government will co-own your home with you. Australians have already rejected this policy right around the country, because the states already have this policy,” she said, claiming the state-based schemes were being wound back.
Sunrise host Nat Barr said she feared for her own adult sons’ ability to buy their own homes.
Barr has two sons, Hunter, 19, and Lachlan, 22, with husband Andrew Thompson.
“I’m in the lucky position I got to buy mine when they were cheaper years ago but I don’t know how my kids are going to buy one,” she said.
Hume said it was up to the prime minister to convince the state premiers to “open up supply” to improve housing affordability.
PM under fire
Meanwhile, the segment also addressed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s apology after he sarcastically asked Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor if he had Tourette syndrome during a fiery question time on Tuesday.
“The idea — I mean this nonsense that they carry on with, the idea that we’re… have you got Tourette’s or something? You know, you sit there, babble, babble, babble,” he said.
Albanese immediately withdrew the slur and apologised, later reiterating his contrition over the comment.
“Today in Question Time I made comments that were unkind and hurtful,” he said.
“I knew it was wrong as soon as I made the comment. I apologised and I withdrew as soon as I said it but it shouldn’t have happened.
“And I also want to apologise to all Australians who suffer from this disability. I regret saying it, it was wrong, it was insensitive and I apologise,” Albanese said.
O’Neil suggested that he had copped to his mistake and made amends.
“Immediately after he said these words, he apologised. And then as you point out he later came back into the Parliament and gave a more extensive apology. He made a mistake. Respectfully, Nat, you probably make mistakes, Jane, you and I both make mistakes in our work in politics. What matters is how we deal with it afterwards,” she said.
Hume fired back that even under pressure, “mocking people with a disability is no laughing matter”.
“People with Tourette syndrome deserve our respect, not our ridicule,” she said.
“This has really been an insight into the prime minister’s character.
“Ironically, in a week when this Parliament is going to be voting on adopting a code of conduct for our own behaviour in Parliament and I hope that the prime minister reflects on that when he votes on that motion,” she said.
