15 April 2025

If I were housing minister…

If I were housing minister in the next Parliament, and if I could secure the PM’s backing to squarely face up to the overdue need for fundamental housing reform, I would have a busy schedule ahead.

8 April 2025

Albanese and housing 2022-25: hyperactivity without a plan

Yet again, as a federal election approaches, we look set for a national debate in which competing housing policy offers will take centre stage. The Greens began to unveil their pitch back in 2024 and the Coalition has now started to follow suit.

29 September 2024

Winding back housing tax breaks to fund social housing

Extra revenue from winding back currently available tax breaks should be designated for social housing investment and increased Rent Assistance -a housing policy virtuous circle.

10 September 2024

The contested politics of housing reform

While most Australians remain well-housed, few public policy experts would argue that our housing system is today in good shape. Homelessness continues to increase and both rental and mortgage affordability stress are widespread.

2 April 2024

Strategic response to Australias housing problems long overdue

In just four years since the advent of COVID-19, Australias house prices have climbed by a dizzying 50%. Defying orthodox expectations that property inflation would be quelled by rising interest rates, that upward trend has continued even since the RBAs monetary tightening phase began in mid-2022, with prices up by 12% in that period alone.

10 March 2024

Housing battle lines for election 2025 begin to emerge

With last weeks announcements from the Coalition and Australian Greens, the contours of next years election housing debate have begun to take shape. Its pretty clear that, as in four of the past six national polls, this policy area will be a flashpoint of the coming contest.

18 September 2023

Weighing the significance of Labors social housing investment fund

After more than six months of Parliamentary wrangling, the ALPs flagship housing future fund bill finally cleared the Senate last week. For Australias neglected social housing sector, this presages a welcome revival of federally-supported capital investment, absent for most of the past quarter century. But, in a longer-term perspective, the resulting program will be significant only if it forms an initial downpayment on a much larger and broader housing reform and investment program.

18 August 2023

Labor offers new help for renters and first homebuyers, but PM must aim higher

Along with a new scheme for first home buyer assistance, Federally-led rental reform is now on the PMs agenda. But this weeks National Cabinet and Party Conference housing announcements need to be integrated into a coherent and ambitious long-term strategy.

11 May 2023

Housing in Budget 2023: small but positive steps

A housing policy bonanza it most certainly was not, but related announcements in Budget 2023 included some modestly positive steps that supplement the Albanese Governments existing array of housing initiatives. These included pledged new spending to ease cost of living pressures for hard-pressed renters, and to fund dwelling energy efficiency upgrades in social housing. On the tax side, there was a potentially significant move to encourage institutional investment in purpose-built rental housing.

12 April 2023

High stakes debate on Albanese Governments social and affordable housing plans

The Albanese Governments flagship housing legislation has stalled in the Senate, with the PM alarmingly flagging a risk that the package might be abandoned until the next election.

28 April 2022

Priority actions for the next federal housing minister

Housing is yet again up there as a major concern in this years federal election debate. Given the rising cost of putting a roof over your head in todays Australia, thats hardly surprising. Buying a home will now set you back 30% more than at the start of the Morrison governments current term in office. Meanwhile, rent increases have escalated to their highest levels for more than a decade.

8 March 2022

Housing in the coming federal election

Very largely thanks to economic stimulus pumped into the economy to ward off COVID recession, Australias housing is now 30% more expensive than in 2019.

10 March 2021

Rising house prices putting at risk the economic stability of the nation

Housing policies are contributing to stagnating economic growth and putting at risk the economic stability of the nation.

8 March 2021

Beware the housing lion that roars: a bite still awaits

There's always strings attached and the housing market is no different. A perfect storm is building, thanks to cheap money and housing grants that have turbo-charged the market.

28 September 2020

Why a social housing stimulus is a measure Morrison cannot ignore.

Given our Prime Ministers famously well-honed skill of tapping into the public mood, as well as his claims to an economically hard-headed approach to policymaking, you would surely expect a social housing stimulus plan to be front and centre of his upcoming financial plan.