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In a community engagement session, federal Housing Minister Julie Collins has told young Australians she is committed to solving their biggest housing challenge.
The consultation was held in Hobart – Ms Collins’ hometown – to canvas young Australians’ views on housing to inform the government’s forthcoming National Housing and Homelessness Plan.
According to a doorstop interview that Ms Collins gave following the event on 10 November, the minister in charge of spearheading the government’s flagship housing initiatives was met with a “resilient” group of young people who “want to make change”.
When queried about the feedback she received from the session, Ms Collins reported that the group had been clear in their message that the cost of housing is too high.
“Affordability is a really serious issue for young Tasmanians and also younger Australians. Whether it’s renting, or whether it’s buying, clearly affordability is an issue for so many Australians,” she said.
And while the federal minister touched on a number of measures that the government had enacted to help young Australians with both the cost of renting and saving for their first home deposit, she was equally clear in her message that the only thing that will have the desired long-term impact on housing affordability is increased supply.
“Everybody says the answer is supply. We’re obviously adding to supply as quickly as possible,” she said, responding directly to the issue of dwindling available rentals and subsequently high rents.
In both the short term and long term, she said that building new homes is the answer young Australians need to feel like they have access to secure housing.
“What we want to do is deal with short term and add to supply but also have a long-term plan to add to supply, and I think that is really important in terms of the National Housing Accord, and the New Homes Bonus – the $3.5 billion [incentive to states] and the 1.2 million homes target.”
But Ms Collins did not sugarcoat the issue. A housing shortage is difficult to rectify, and has been years in the making.
“You know, our housing sector has been heading in the wrong direction for quite a long time and turning it around we know is difficult, but we’re stepping up to the plate working with the states and territories to do just that,” Ms Collins said.
Questioned as to whether the young people she spoke with had given up on the dream of owning a home due to high prices – as the journalist asking the question admitted they had – Ms Collins responded that while the government is working to implement some of its election promises to assist home ownership, supply, too, is the answer for despairing young Aussies hoping to buy.
“We have the Home Guarantee Scheme where we’ve made some significant changes and we’ve added to it with our Regional First Home Buyer scheme … We are, of course, working to introduce our Help to Buy scheme and our Shared Equity scheme.
“We’re looking right across the spectrum of housing, whether it’s renting, whether it’s with a mortgage, or buying your own home or social housing, we want to add to supply at every level,” Ms Collins said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Juliet Helmke
Based in Sydney, Juliet Helmke has a broad range of reporting and editorial experience across the areas of business, technology, entertainment and the arts. She was formerly Senior Editor at The New York Observer.
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