City Futures Blog

News and research in housing and urban policy, from Australia’s leading urban policy research centre.

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Entries Tagged as 'Government'

A dog’s breakfast? Why rental pet reform is needed

August 5th, 2020 · No Comments · Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Private rental, Strata, Tenancy

By Ebony Stansfield, UNSW Newsroom. Originally published by UNSW Newsroom. NSW pet tenancy laws do not reflect the needs of society, with strata by-laws impacting the vulnerable, say UNSW experts. As COVID-19 restricted them to working from home, Alexandra Foster and her partner decided it would be perfect to foster an animal. This is when […]

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Why the COVID Commission must back social housing stimulus

June 3rd, 2020 · No Comments · Climate change, Construction, Economy, Government, Housing supply, Pandemic, Sustainability

By Hal Pawson, City Futures Research Centre. The Prime Minister’s COVID Commission is supposed to be advising government on how to ‘facilitate the fastest possible recovery of lives and livelihoods’ after the pandemic. Yet it’s main focus appears to be the promotion of a fossil-fuelled medium-term industrial strategy tailored to mining interests. Advocacy for a […]

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Homelessness policy: summary of CFRC submission to Senate Inquiry

June 1st, 2020 · No Comments · Government

By Hal Pawson, City Futures Research Centre In Australia and in other countries, the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted extraordinary housing policy innovation and emergency spending. Since March an estimated 5,000 people have been rescued into temporary shelter across Australia. Alongside this, panicked by the vision of abrupt mass unemployment triggering a national rent arrears crisis, […]

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Australia can, and must, build the post-pandemic recovery with more social housing

May 22nd, 2020 · No Comments · Affordability, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Housing supply, Pandemic, urban renewal

By Bill Randolph, City Futures Research Centre, and Wendy Hayhurst, Community Housing Industry Association. Originally published on John Menadue’s Pearls and Irritations. The Australian Treasurer has acknowledged that boosting infrastructure spend would be a good way to kickstart our country’s recovery from the current pandemic. What follows is a reasoned case for that infrastructure spend […]

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Coronavirus lays bare 5 big housing system flaws to be fixed

May 12th, 2020 · No Comments · Affordability, Construction, Economy, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Housing supply, Pandemic, Tenancy, urban renewal

By Hal Pawson, City Futures Research Centre UNSW, and Peter Mares, Monash University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Australians had become used to walking past rough sleepers. Policymakers too, seemed unmoved by the people huddled in doorways or sheltering in parks under plastic sheets. […]

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Why City Futures backs social housing stimulus plan

May 5th, 2020 · No Comments · Economy, Government, Housing supply, Pandemic

By Bill Randolph, Director, City Futures Research Centre With Australia’s economy taking a record-breaking pandemic hit, governments now face the huge challenge of reviving employment as the health crisis subsides. It’s widely agreed that a stimulus spending program should be a central plank of the recovery plan.   Construction is an obvious stimulus target, since, […]

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Rents can and should be reduced or suspended for the coronavirus pandemic

April 8th, 2020 · No Comments · Affordability, Economy, Government, Housing, Law, Tenancy, Uncategorized

By Chris Martin, City Futures Research Centre. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. The National Cabinet announced a moratorium on evictions just over a week ago in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As government ministers and commentators have tried to make clear, it’s intended only […]

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Why housing evictions must be suspended to defend us against coronavirus

March 23rd, 2020 · No Comments · Economy, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Law, Money, Pandemic, Wellbeing

Antonio Guillem/Shutterstock By Sophia Maalsen, University of Sydney; Chris Martin, UNSW; Dallas Rogers, University of Sydney, and Emma Power, Western Sydney University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. The COVID-19 pandemic is a double crisis affecting public health and the economy. And both aspects are playing […]

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Australia’s housing system needs a big shake-up: here’s how we can crack this

February 17th, 2020 · No Comments · Affordability, Economy, Finance, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Housing supply, Tenancy

By Hal Pawson, UNSW; Judith Yates, University of Sydney, and Vivienne Milligan, UNSW. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Despite two years of housing market cooling in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia stayed near the top of the global unaffordability league in 2019. And with prices rebounding […]

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Why adequate and affordable housing matters to productivity

January 21st, 2020 · No Comments · Cities, Economy, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Productivity

By Wendy Hayhurst, CEO Community Housing Industry Association. Originally published on John Menadue’s Pearls and Irritations. A growing body of research is demonstrating the adverse productivity impacts of inadequate or unaffordable housing in Australia (and elsewhere). These include impacts on human capital through the mismatch between the availability of suitable housing and employment, and the distorting […]

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