Treasury Laws Amendment (Reducing Pressure on Housing Affordability Measures) Bill 2019 and another

The majority voted against an amendment to the usual second reading motion that the bill be read a second time, which is parliamentary jargon for the House agreeing with the main idea of the bill. This means the amendment failed. It had been introduced by Rankin MP Jim Chalmers (Labor).

Amendment text

That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House notes that under this Government, housing affordability has gotten worse, and as a result:

(1) the percentage of Australians who own their own home has dropped to its lowest level since Robert Menzies was Prime Minister back in the 1960s;

(2) the number of Australians behind in their mortgage payments is at its highest level since the global financial crisis;

(3) the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has shown that in 2017–18 over one million low income households were in financial housing stress and that 43.1 per cent of low income households renting in Australia were suffering rental stress; and

(4) there are more homeless Australians than ever before".