Housing Affordability Crisis The Elephant in the Room
Democrat Senator Andrew Bartlett has renewed his longstanding call for the federal government to develop a national housing strategy in the wake of the latest proposals to address the nation's housing affordability crisis.
"A national approach to housing is well overdue," Senator Bartlett said.
"The federal Treasurer likes to portray himself as a good economic manager, but he has fiddled away for years while the housing market has been burning in front of him. His 'strategy' of blaming the states and expecting the market to sort it all out has clearly failed.
"The years of buck-passing, abdicating of responsibilities and overall inaction on the housing affordability issue by our governments has achieved nothing other than financial hardship for many Australian families.
"The Democrats have called time and time again for a national approach to tackle the crisis in housing affordability.
"There have been numerous summits and calls for national action from a diverse range of stakeholders including community housing organisations, the Property Council, Councils of Social Services and the Housing Industry Association, among others.
Senator Bartlett said the latest proposal from the National Affordable Housing Summit for incentives to developers to provide rental housing for low income earners merits strong consideration in the lead up to the next Budget.
"The reality is, is that there is no simple solution. Yabbering on about removing stamp duty or interest rates levels won't cut it.
"A national strategy is needed urgently. It requires a concerted effort on the part of all stakeholders and governments, not blame-shifting as a way of ignoring the elephant in the room," Senator Bartlett concluded.
Senator Bartlett spoke to the Senate last night regarding the housing affordability crisis. The text of his speech can be found here: https://secure.democrats.org.au/speeches/index.htm?speech_id=2125&display=1
