Housing policy debate mismatched with Australian culture

Housing is a major election issue but neither party is providing the details voters need.  

From the National Press Club: Housing policy is very tricky to balance effectively. There is no set formula because times and circumstances change. What worked in the Menzies era, when home ownership in Australia was at its highest levels, may not work now. But some things remain the same.

We need infrastructure. Not just roads but also potable water, sewerage, telecommunications, energy, shops, schools, hospitals, emergency services, and police.

Today’s debate at the Press Club between Labor Minister for Housing and Homelessness Clare O’Neil and her counterpart, Liberal Michael Sukkar, was uninspiring. We were introduced on one hand to a Labor policy based on talking to people in inner cities with no clue about the regions, and a Coalition policy closer to reality but not presented in a way that was convincing.

Writing in the Morning Double Shot newsletter, Terry Barnes had this to say.

Meanwhile, the prosaic election campaign set pieces continue. Yesterday it was a debate between housing spokesmen. Political correspondent Michael de Percy, whose National Press Club house account is taking a battering to give you a ringside seat, was totally unimpressed with both the debate and the way the spokesmen spoke. That sentence pretty well applies to the whole campaign for your scribe.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Housing policy debate mismatched with Australian culture.

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