Ideas & Society Program: How to Fix the Housing Crisis

It is not controversial to claim that one of the most vital obligations of government is to ensure that its people have access to suitable, affordable housing.

There was a time when Australians had reason to be proud of the nation’s housing policies and outcomes. That time has passed.

According to the Convenor of La Trobe University’s Ideas and Society Program, Professor Robert Manne: “In recent years both the Commonwealth Government and the governments of the states have failed to meet their housing obligations or address adequately the crisis the nation faces.

"Why? And practically speaking, what should be done?

“We are privileged to have, as members of the panel for this event, three important contributors to the debate on Australia’s housing crisis and possible solutions.

“Alan Kohler is a distinguished economist, the former editor of The Age, very well known as the regular financial analyst on ABC News. Recently Alan has published an outstanding and characteristically original Quarterly Essay on Australia’s housing crisis, “The Great Divide: Australia’s Housing Mess and How to Fix It”.

Maiy Azize is the Deputy Director of Anglicare and Spokesperson for “Everybody’s Home”, a group formed in 2018 because of the worsening housing crisis. It is supported by very many of Australia’s principal social welfare associations. Last year “Everybody’s Home” published the results of a wide-ranging and revealing survey, Brutal Reality: The Human Cost of Australia’s Housing Crisis.

The discussion will be led by Peter Mares, a respected public policy analyst, authorof a seminal study on asylum seekers, Borderline, and more recently, No Place Like Home that led to a four-part ABC series, “Housing the Australian Nation”

Host: Peter Mares

Independent Writer and Researcher

Speaker: Alan Kohler AM

Journalist

Speaker: Maiy Azize

Deputy Director, Anglicare Australia