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https://theconversation.com/australias-deeply-unfair-housing-system-is-in-crisis-and-our-politicians-are-failing-us-219001>
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Review: Quarterly Essay 92: The Great Divide – Australia’s Housing Mess and
How to Fix It by Alan Kohler (Black Inc.)
“The fact that one of the least populated countries on Earth contains the
world’s second most expensive housing is a national calamity, and a stunning
failure of public policy,” writes Alan Kohler, in the latest
Quarterly Essay.
He doesn’t mince words. We are in a housing crisis – and it is a public policy
failure of the biggest kind. This crisis is about more than housing: it is a
social and economic crisis, creating a society defined by inherited wealth.
This has not happened overnight. Kohler maps out 70 years of housing public
policy in Australia, starting with changes to the Commonwealth and State
Housing Agreement in 1954, when the program was redirected to support home
ownership by forcing the states to sell much of what was being built.
By 1971, approximately 40% of the houses built by the Commonwealth State
Housing Agreement – which had included 96,000 in its first decade, from 1945 to
1955 – had been sold.
These changes have led to a generational fracture in housing pathways and a
breakdown in one of the key pillars that defined Australia’s welfare state in
the 20th century.
Somewhat refreshingly, Kohler captures a sentiment many of us with newly minted
mortgages or stuck in private rental know, deep down: Australia’s housing
system is in crisis, it is deeply unfair and our politicians are failing us."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
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mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
