Doug Cameron
It started to unravel when conservative prime minister Robert Menzies decided to push up private home ownership by selling public housing. That was a strategy to turn working-class people into mini-capitalists. Since then, governments have increasingly viewed housing in terms of profits and investments rather than as a human right.
That’s shifted attention away from policies that prioritize affordable, stable, and high-quality homes for working-class people. So I’m arguing that there is a different way to do housing that isn’t anchored in what’s best for the market and property speculators. That’s the kind of fundamental debate that Labor should be having.
Partly it’s about tax reform. I mean, most economists understand that capital-gains tax concessions and negative gearing drive housing prices up, right? But that’s off the table for both major parties at the moment. Even Labor politicians aren’t interested in debating housing as a human right.
On the contrary, I think that challenging the status quo would be a vote winner.
This has helped a kind of racist argument creep into the debate, namely, the idea that immigration drives up housing prices. I think it’s wrong to capitulate to the argument that reducing migration should be the focus of the housing policy debate. I migrated here, and immigration has been a positive economic and social driver in this country.
Now, I don’t think Labor’s going to go to the next election saying it’s going to change negative gearing. But negative gearing does need to be dealt with in the longer term, because it mainly benefits wealthy speculators. And I hope that the ALP goes to the election with a robust policy that formalizes housing as a human right.
There are people who can pay millions of dollars for a house. But for most young Australians, that’s never going to be an…
Auteur: Doug Cameron
