Plea For Affordable Housing To Be Part Of Next Election Campaign
06/06/2018
“You go to any BBQ or pub, this is what people are talking about and looking to government for action on.”
A coalition of charities and crisis accommodation organisations is hoping to catapult home affordability and social housing squarely into the frame for the next federal election campaign, calling on major parties to commit to policies to fix Australia’s “broken” housing system.
The campaign, titled Everybody’s Home, brings together the likes of the Salvation Army, Homelessness Australia, Anglicare, Uniting and a bevy of social housing bodies. Members have united to push for governments at all levels to address issues related to housing, from mortgage and rental affordability, to crisis shelter availability, homelessness, and state-funded public housing stock.
Last week, a delegation of members travelled to federal parliament in Canberra to lobby politicians directly, meeting with a clutch of interested Coalition, Labor and Greens members.
“Coming out of the federal budget, we were very disappointed not to see any additional initiatives, reforms or anything to address housing affordability or the homelessness crisis in Australia,” Kate Colvin, of the Victoria-based Council to Homeless Persons, told ten daily.
“After last year’s budget, we anticipated there would be something to build on that. But apart from tax reform, it wasn’t even referred to in [Labor leader Bill Shorten’s] budget reply speech.”