Premier Peter Malinauskas labels urban sprawl critics ‘borderline immoral’

Premier Peter Malinauskas has issued a scorching reproach to urban sprawl critics lamenting about their children living at home until they’re 40.

Urban sprawl critics have been branded “borderline immoral” by Premier Peter Malinauskas, as he blisteringly rejected tax breaks for baby boomers to downsize their homes.

Issuing scorching rhetoric at a top-level economic forum, Mr Malinauskas declared he could not “stand people” who bleated about housing supply for their children living “at home until they’re 40’, yet then opposed expansion of Adelaide’s northern suburbs.

Mr Malinauskas said he was “unapologetic about wanting to expand our urban growth boundary”, yet also moving to forge strategic medium and high-density infill developments, including at Thebarton’s former West End Brewery site.

Premier Peter Malinauskas announcing South Australia's Housing Roadmap in mid-2024 Picture: Keryn Stevens

Renowned demographer Simon Kuestenmacher labelled housing supply “Adelaide’s big weakness’’, as he issued a radical call for home prices to be halved by setting targets relative to household income.

Mr Kuestenmacher told Tuesday’s Adelaide Economic Development Agency forum that attracting young people, particularly in their 20s and 30s, was Adelaide’s biggest opportunity to overcome an ageing population.

Conceding his government was worried about attracting people, Mr Malinauskas said housing policy was “probably the most powerful lever available to governments at the moment” and boosting supply was critical.

Asked how building cheap houses one hour from Adelaide attracted young people, aged 20 to 40, who wanted to live near the city, Mr Malinauskas replied: “I think it is borderline immoral for government to arbitrarily dictate to young families how and where they’ll live.

“ … I get incredulous about this – I can’t stand people who will say: ‘Oh, housing supply, where are our kids going to live, they can’t afford it, kids are going to live at home until they’re 40’.

“And then, five minutes later, they’re seeking to constrain supply by saying people can’t live in Kudla, between Davoren Park and Gawler. I think that’s bollocks.”

Housing and Urban Development Minister Nick Champion with Premier Peter Malinauskas in Thebarton, on the West End Brewery redevelopment site, in September, 2023. Picture: Matt Loxton

Asked about incentives for baby boomers to downsize from large homes, Mr Malinauskas jocularly replied: “Yes, baby boomers, always up for a tax cut – but who isn’t?”

But he said the government had deliberately targeted young people with stamp duty relief for first-home buyers on new home builds.

“If there’s anyone out there who I think deserves a bit of a tax break, it isn’t people who’ve had massive capital gains by virtue of the fact they purchased their home 30 years ago,” he said.

“Frankly, I think the people who deserve a bit of a tax break are the very generation of people who’ve been actively excluded from the housing market because of those capital gains.”

Asked how Adelaide’s advantages of affordability and lifestyle would not be eroded, Mr Malinauskas said: “It’s all about supply. There’s a lot of silver bullet ideas out there from across the political spectrum and even some parts of industry about how we tackle the housing crisis -it’s all about supply. I am only interested in policies that assist supply.”

Originally published as Premier Peter Malinauskas labels urban sprawl critics ‘borderline immoral’