- by Peter Farmer
- The Guardian
- Issue #2141
CPA members at the rally for Housing Justice rally in Sydney Town Hall on 11th February. Photo: CPA
Major charity group Anglicare has responded to the recent budget reply speech by warning that two of the Dutton-led Opposition’s plans for housing could make the crisis even worse. Scrapping the Housing Australia Future Fund will, on its own, mean that Australia builds less, not more social housing.
“Nobody will benefit from this plan, and tens of thousands will be left in limbo as the housing crisis worsens,” warned the Anglicare Australia Executive Director, Kasy Chambers.
Chambers also warned that the Opposition’s proposed Super for Housing scheme could push up costs and lower retirement incomes. “We saw during the pandemic that people who drew down on their retirement savings were those who had the least. On top of that, we know that schemes like these push up the cost of housing instead of bringing them down.”
The Communist Party of Australia supports intensive investment in public rather than ‘social and affordable’ housing because those schemes are easily rorted and are not a solution to the housing crisis. ‘Social’ housing can be turned into private housing any time it suits the charity or NGO that’s running it, while ‘affordable’ is often set at a percentage of already too-high private rents, so only relatively affordable.
However, ‘social and affordable’ is better than doing absolutely nothing apart from making the crisis worse, which seems to be the Dutton plan.
