Editorial: So much for our new culture of accountability

Deb Frecklington’s role of integrity minister, by definition, means she should set the standard for her colleagues. On one issue she is falling short, writes the editor.

Attorney-General and Integrity Minister Deb Frecklington has been less than transparent. Picture: Dan Peled/NCA NewsWire

• Lips sealed: A-G’s Sosso silence

Deb Frecklington is not only the Crisafulli government’s Attorney-General. She is also its Minister for Integrity – an eminently suitable role for someone who is so widely respected in State Parliament.

But it is a role that – by definition – means she should be the one who sets the standard for her colleagues.

We have absolutely no doubt Ms Frecklington is capable of doing so.

Unfortunately she yesterday fell short over her controversial recommendation that Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie’s director-general be appointed to the body that determines Queensland’s electoral boundaries.

The Courier-Mail asked Ms Frecklington if the director-general, John Sosso, had expressed interest in the role or if she had approached him. But Ms Frecklington chose to totally dodge the question, with her spokeswoman replying only: “The government has nominated three individuals who are beyond reproach. The appointments follow the Electoral Act requirements for the Queensland Redistribution Commission with a retired judge, a senior public servant and the electoral commissioner.”

In opposition, Ms Frecklington rightly criticised the Palaszczuk administration for not being nearly transparent enough. In November, Premier David Crisafulli issued her a ministerial charter that included a clear instruction to her to drive a culture of accountability.

She has fallen short by flippantly dodging a simple question. It sadly reminds us of the previous mob.

HOUSING DEMANDS MORE

Labor and the Coalition have both made fixing the housing crisis central planks of their election campaigns – and both have taken the predictable way out; to simply throw money at the problem.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton unveiled a $1.25bn plan at the Coalition’s campaign launch on Sunday to allow first-home buyers purchasing newly-built homes to tax-deduct payments on up to $650,000 of their mortgages for their first five years. He promises a potential saving of up to $60,000.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese used Labor’s campaign launch on the same day to promise government-backed insurance to help first-home lenders get into the housing market with as little as a 5 per cent deposit. The government claims this could help an additional 80,000 people each year, but that’s only because the government – read, taxpayers – are carrying the additional risk.

Both these policies will definitely help those first-home buyers who manage to qualify. But at what cost? As various economists have since pointed out, the likely impact of both policies is higher, rather than more affordable, housing prices.

Neither policy does anything to increase affordable housing supply. And that means all either side is proposing is to pump more money into a property market that is already overheated because of a lack of supply, and big demand.

Independent economist Chris Richardson concluded; “Australian housing suffers from too much money chasing too few homes, so adding the extra money going in results in ever higher prices.”

Saul Eslake went further, saying Labor and the Coalition had clearly reached a bipartisan consensus to push up house prices further.

Both sides have tried to cloak their blatant – expensive – vote-buys by claiming they also have longer-term strategies for solving Australia’s housing shortage.

The Coalition plans a $5bn infrastructure fund to help local councils unlock land, and support construction of an estimated 500,000 new homes. Predictably, details are sketchy.

Labor says it will provide $10bn in loans and grants to build 100,000 new homes over the next decade. But again, there’s not a lot to go on.

At best, both plans could be safely described as “aspirational”. More sceptically, “wishful thinking” could be a better description for both.

In any event, both housing plans reconfirm a point we made here on Monday – our politicians seem to have given up on courageous and smart economic leadership.

Instead of promising thoughtful solutions for the big problems we face as a society – and, yes, housing affordability is high on that list – they appear focused on buying their way into voters’ hearts through that crudest of strategies – gift-giving.

Building costs have outpaced house price growth for some time, and so it is more affordable to buy an existing home than construct a new one. Labour productivity is also getting worse, with the average time to complete a build increasing from about six months pre-Covid to more than 10 months today.

But instead of structural remedies such as addressing surging costs and falling productivity in the construction sector, both of our would-be prime ministers have chosen broad one-off handouts.

Solving these problems is tough. But wouldn’t it be a nice change if our leaders took the challenge on, rather than the easy way out of hoping to bribe their way to victory?

Responsibility for election comment is taken by Chris Jones, corner of Mayne Rd & Campbell St, Bowen Hills, Qld 4006. Printed and published by NEWSQUEENSLAND (ACN 009 661 778). Contact details here

Originally published as Editorial: So much for our new culture of accountability