Housing crisis must be addressed

The current housing crisis is impacting many people in our beautiful region.

Whether looking to rent, buy or access social housing, I am regularly hearing from Gippslanders who are struggling to put a roof over their heads as availability and affordability is constrained by rising costs, huge demand and government inaction.

Rental and house prices are soaring and that’s if you’re lucky enough to find a property in the first place.

While for some it may be a good thing that there is booming demand for property in our region, the reality is that the failure to meet this demand is pushing people down the chain from ownership to rental and even into the need for public housing – and understandably the shortages are causing significant stress.

While demand is strong, there is not enough effort on the supply side and too many constraints caused by government.

The Labor government’s own budget papers show that the time taken to approve planning scheme amendments is well over target – that’s red tape that hinders new housing developments.

Despite promising no new taxes before coming to government, Labor has since introduced 42 new or increased taxes and 21 of them are property-based.

The Nationals and Liberals opposed the implementation of a new “windfall gains tax” on property developers because we could see that it will only result in costs being passed on to homebuyers and make housing affordability even worse. Ultimately this tax will only hurt those in most need.

I congratulate the government on its “Big Housing Build” where a number of new houses will be built across the Wellington and South Gippsland Shires for the purpose of social housing over the next year, but many of these are replacements for houses that were decommissioned and it simply isn’t enough to meet the backlog.

This is a problem that needs a solution now. We need more housing in Gippsland and we need to make building those houses easier and more affordable.

Danny O’Brien MP, The Nationals Member for Gippsland South.