The 2025 Federal Budget. The Australian 2025 Federal Election

The 2025 Budget: What's in it for Renters and Affordable Housing Seekers?

The 2025 budget is out, and you might be wondering, what's in it for those of us who pay rent or prefer affordable housing. Well, there's a $150 per year discount on your power bills! Whoopee! This must be what it feels like to win a major lottery! So nothing to see there.

However, the Liberals and Labor continue with their $16.5 billion annual subsidies to higher house prices and higher house price speculators through their Negative Gearing Benefits (NGB) and Capital Gains Tax Discount (CGT) benefits. In perspective, $16.5 billion is $16,500,000,000.00 annually. With such subsidies to higher prices, it's a wonder housing in Australia isn't even more expensive!

To be clear, these higher house price subsidies are effectively supported by both Labor (ALP) and the Liberals (LNP). Therefore, neither party is a friend of housing affordability or those who prefer it. Not with their current policy settings, they're not.

Given the high priority I place on housing affordability, I can not give a first or even second-preference vote to either the ALP or LNP. Indeed, the ALP and its Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF) may make the ALP even more dangerous than the LNP to affordability. How? Because the HAFF creates the illusion of action on affordability, while the reality is that both the LNP and ALP are currently, materially equally toxic to housing affordability. They have decided to continue to support those who prefer higher house prices and a short supply of expensive rentals – hence the current housing crisis, which is so plain to see and so painful to millions of residents and citizens (and voters like you).

I cannot vote for the LNP or the ALP because they are manifestly toxic to my affordability interests. You can judge for yourself. Maybe consider the Greens.