While politicians ignore calls to raise Newstart, alarming levels of financial stress among private renters, particularly in low-rent outer suburbs, show why current welfare payments are too low.
A tenfold increase in building is needed to overcome the current social housing shortfall and cover projected growth in need. But it can be done, and direct public investment is the cheapest way.
A decade after the launch of a national campaign against homelessness, the trends are all going the wrong way. A new annual report highlights what's gone wrong and what must be done.
Increasing the overall housing stock won't ensure an increase in availability of affordable housing. Governments need to need to have a much sharper policy focus on this issue, writes Hal Pawson.
Australian private renters' have less security of tenure under the law than renters in most other comparable countries, write Alan Morris, Hal Pawson and Kath Hulse.
Critics have characterised the Productivity Commission's latest report as a charter for “privatisation” of public housing. Yet it's not a manifesto for an entirely marketised and deregulated framework driven by the profit motive, writes Hal Pawson.
