The presenters re-visit the housing crisis, with rental affordability at a crisis low point for employed people and those living on Centrelink payments.

Many renting long-term still require a stable home, and government policy needs to recognise this. In particular, the government needs to commit to and build more public housing, and enable alternative forms of home ownership such as cooperative housing, co-housing, housing trusts and eco-villages.

The crisis cannot be addressed on its own, as housing policy encompasses a range of other policy areas, such as family, relationship, youth, women and economic policy. Built housing also needs to be addressed within proper planning processes, and we shouldn't have to choose between more housing and good planning that prioritises people's preferred living circumstances and the liveability of local areas. We can do both, and there are good examples of this around the world.

Underpinning all of this, we need to start taxing properly.

References

Amy Remeikis 2026, 'House price blip sets off panic', The New Daily, 8 July 2026.

Emma Riley 2026, 'The false choice at the heart of Australia's housing debate', The New Daily, 12 July 2026.

Luciene Pereira 2026, 'Why slums persist', IEA-WE Women in Economics, 14 May 2026.

Matt Grudnoff 2026, 'Using super for deposits would just put more fuel under house prices', The New Daily, 17 August 2026.

Saul Eslake & Adrian Pisarski 2026, 'Labor's housing tax reforms must be the beginning...', Crikey, 7 July 2026.

Simon Kuestenmacher 2026, 'How unaffordable housing breaks families apart...', The New Daily, 7 July 2026.

Simon Keustenmacher 2026, '...the myth of the downsizing baby boomers', InDaily, 24 August 2026.

SPECIAL ALERT: The 'Cities for Everyone' event that was scheduled for 29 August 2026 at Borderlands has been cancelled. It will be rescheduled and we’ll keep you posted.