Three of Australia’s leading housing academics, Hal Pawson, Vivienne Milligan and Judith Yates, recently released a book entitled Housing Policy In Australia: A Case for System Reform. The authors investigate the many factors that have made our housing system unaffordable for many Australians and brought about homelessness for many disadvantaged individuals and families. They urgently call for a fundamental system reform that:
- Restores intragenerational and intergenerational equity in housing outcomes
- Encourages additional housing affordable to low and moderate income earners
- Discourages over-investment (and speculation) in land and housing
- Counteracts the spatially polarising effects of housing market processes
- Expands the non-market component of the housing system to better accommodate disadvantaged groups and insulates the system from market volatility.
Recommendations include the appointment of a dedicated housing minister at cabinet level, a national agency dedicated to overseeing housing policy, reform of tax breaks, affordable housing targets, long term and stable leases for renters and quality low cost housing.
Housing Policy in Australia: A Case for System Reform
Authors:
Hal Pawson (UNSW Sydney, Kensington, NSW Australia)
Vivienne Milligan (UNSW Sydney, Kensington, NSW Australia)
Judith Yates (University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW Australia)
Published by Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.
