A few weeks ago the Senate Economic References Committee released its long-awaited report on affordable housing in Australia. Senator Xenophon, a member of the committee, has described the report as a ‘landmark’ and he’s right, almost literally: the report is monumental (over 460 pages of evidence and analysis, from an 18-month inquiry that took 231 submissions from every major stakeholder and housing expert, and examined 128 witnesses) and it generally indicates a way out of the desert in which housing policy, particularly at the national level, is presently lost.

The report doesn’t get us all the way to a sound national housing policy, and many of its 40 recommendations call for further investigation and information. The most welcome parts of the report are its recommendations for the national governance of housing policy and the attention it gives to rental housing. The most frustrating parts are the recommendations on tax: on the evidence and analysis presented, these recommendations should have gone further. Most disappointing is the Federal Government’s response. [Read more →]