Why do they even bother? Over the past 13 years, almost every government at every level has undertaken a “home ownership” or “housing affordability” inquiry, received thousands of submissions, written thousands of pages, with absolutely zero results.
They waste everybody’s time and nothing ever changes.
Australia’s housing policy remains as dysfunctional as ever. Housing affordability continues to push new lows. And home ownership rates among younger Australians continue to collapse, as evidenced by the release last week of the latest Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey:
In May last year, the parliamentary Standing Committee on Economics launched the latest “Home Ownership Inquiry”, whose terms of reference included:
- current rates of home ownership;
- demand and supply drivers in the housing market;
- the proportion of investment housing relative to owner-occupied housing;
- the impact of current tax policy at all levels; and
- opportunities for reform
This inquiry held seven days of public hearings across Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne, and received 65 submissions.
And what was the output of this Committee?
That’s right, the inquiry “lapsed” once the election was called. No report. Nothing.
Seriously, why do politicians and policy makers even pretend to care about housing?
If they did, Australia would have a dedicated housing minister, which was conspicuously missing from the Turnbull Government’s latest ministerial line-up.
Our authorities and central bank (e.g. the RBA, APRA and the Treasury) would be agitating strongly for policy reform, as has occurred in New Zealand. But they remain silent.
And our politicians would be vigorously debating housing, as is occurring in New Zealand.
The end result is that the number one social, economic and inter-generational challenge in Australia has barely anyone looking after it.
Is it time they stopped pretending to care?
