Pauline Hanson has said One Nation intends to block the Turnbull government’s omnibus welfare bill because it cuts “too deeply and too broadly” – but she has given the government 24 hours to improve its current offer.



In a statement on Tuesday Hanson linked the proposed welfare cuts in the omnibus bill to the issue of multi-national tax avoidance, saying the government needs to realise companies must “pay their way ... before those with the least are asked to tighten their belts”.

Hanson’s comments came as the government equivocated on company tax cuts in question time, offering only general answers to direct questions about whether it was preparing to deliver its $50bn tax cut policy in full.

The government only has the numbers in the Senate to pass the first tranche of its tax cut plan, and both the prime minister and the treasurer stepped around the direct questions pursued by Labor on Tuesday.

A statement issued by One Nation on Tuesday said the government could not expect to “prioritise tax dodging multinationals before Australians” and expect support for cuts to welfare and family payments detailed in the omnibus welfare bill.

The statement warned the government it had 24 hours “to change their tune and show some good will towards the Australian people, or [Pauline Hanson] will guarantee that their omnibus bill will never leave the station.”

Hanson singled out changes to family tax benefits A and B as her concerns with the bill which she said “unfairly targets Australia’s most vulnerable”. She had previously opposed the bill because it was too generous to pregnant mothers.

The bill includes changes to childcare, cuts to paid parental leave, abolishing end of year supplements for some families and energy supplements for welfare recipients, including pensioners.

One Nation’s opposition, along with Labor and the Greens, would be sufficient to defeat the bill, imperilling the $3bn of savings the government planned from family tax benefit cuts in the bill.

With the government set to include a new housing affordability package in the May budget, new data meanwhile showed the median house price in Sydney has nearly hit $1m, after dwelling prices rose another 10.3% last year.

A median-priced house in Sydney ($970,000) is now worth two and a half median-priced houses in Hobart ($385,000).

Bureau of Statistics figures show residential property prices rose 4.1% across Australia in the final three months of last year, the strongest quarterly growth since the June quarter 2015.

Prices in Sydney and Melbourne continued to race ahead of other capital cities despite predictions they would ease significantly through 2016.

Melbourne recorded the largest through-the-year growth of all capital cities at 10.8%, followed closely by Sydney at 10.3%.



Hobart (8.8%), Canberra (5.5%), Adelaide (4.1%) and Brisbane (3.8%) all recorded strong growth, while prices fell in Perth (4.1%) and Darwin (7%).

The ABS data comes after repeated warnings from the Reserve Bank and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority about growing risks in the housing sector.

Minutes from this month’s RBA board meeting show the central bank is concerned about homeowners’ ability to finance their homes.

“Recent data continued to suggest that there had been a build-up of risks associated with the housing market,” the minutes said.

“Over recent months, conditions appeared to have strengthened in Sydney and had remained strong in Melbourne; these cities had continued to record brisk growth in housing prices, and auction clearance rates had remained high.

The RBA is also concerned about record-low wages growth, saying if it persisted it would have implications for consumption growth “and the risks posed by the level of household debt.”

“Employment growth had continued to be concentrated in part-time jobs over the past year and wage growth had remained low, suggesting that the labour market had not been quite as strong as the headline employment and unemployment rate figures had indicated,” the minutes warned.

Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen says Labor has consistently warned about problems associated with record low wages growth, saying the government should not back the recent penalty rates decision because it will have a dampening effect on economic growth.

The Commonwealth Bank says the median house price in Sydney is now $970,000, followed by Melbourne ($675,000) and Canberra ($650,000).

Darwin ($525,000), Perth ($523,000), and Brisbane ($515,000) sit around half a million dollars. Adelaide ($450,000) and Hobart ($385,000) are the cheapest.

“We expect to see continued national dwelling price growth until there are some changes to the policy settings driving [demand],” Commonwealth economist Michael Workman wrote in a note to clients.

“Any RBA interest rate rises are not likely till the second half of 2018 in our view.”

It emerged last week that Malcolm Turnbull has been considering plans to improve housing affordability by allowing first-home buyers to dip into their super for their deposits.

The Liberal backbencher John Alexander, who has been leading an internal party push on housing affordability, told Sky News he had been talking to the prime minister about the idea.

On Monday former Prime Minister Paul Keating slammed the idea, saying the “scandalous” proposal was driven by Liberal ideology and showed the government’s “policy bankruptcy”.