Sometimes the gods of sustainability and human kindness smile on us.
So it was this week that long years of research reports, surveys, opinions and outright public pleas that intensified over time finally peaked with some early signs of a political shift on housing reforms that we all cross our fingers will lead to action.
The Albanese government came to power on a wave of hope and the skerrick of optimism that had not yet been shredded by a decade of climate doom fomented by the other lot.
Some responses to the new regime took their cues from the man himself – calm and measured, not prone to wild bursts of emotion and passion (unlike some a little closer to home). It was good. Personally we liked the politics of the small target approach pre-election. Anything not to frighten the notoriously skittish Australian horses (or brumbies).
So we waited. And we waited.
On the weekend some true believer friends pointed out that the Albanese government was doing stuff – just not crowing about it.
On climate, some of us might be able to kid ourselves that we still have that magical “decade” to get serious action happening and while there has been some progress the patience on stronger faster action is wearing thin.
Meanwhile at the top financial end of town that kicked off the global moves for climate risk to be accounted for financially there’s a new meme to drop the call for a 1.5 degree Celsius limit to global warming because it’s just too hard. So beware the inevitable backlash (to everything).
On the human/social side of sustainability though, the impacts can’t be ignored.
They’re here and now and we have no illusions – the suffering of the poorest and even not so poor people in our society is reaching a critical point and the cost of housing is one of the main drivers of that pain.
Some will deny this, but we see the rising interest rates as a direct response to rising house prices (We think the Reserve Bank doesn’t need the more than 1500 people who work for it, it just has to keep an eye on RP Data).
The cascade of pain or gain from the housing market has long been welded into Australia’s DNA because we are an immigrant country and that drives a big part of the economy (while the biggest gains from mining and our other big earner technology are sewn up in overseas tax havens.)
So housing it is. Its paucity is suffocating Australia’s emerald city (Sydney), creating huge growing pains in Queensland and choking off capital in Victoria because that state is trying to tame this powerful beast through taxes on empty housing and short term rentals. Which of course means further problems in the other two centres of economic activity mentioned because we can’t manage to have national policies that create level playing fields (don’t ever let anyone from the capital markets or property tell you they want a level playing field – they don’t. The humps and crevices are where fortunes are made).
South Australia on the other hand is going down the path of shanty town, hoping to woo the desperate with a short term hit of a roof over their heads and get them to worry about how to heat and cool their homes later thanks to a freeze on meeting even the basic lowest standards of construction that’s managed through Building Code of Australia. Shame – Adelaide was starting to look cool and hip.
Perth is under the mining giants’ screws. But having said that, it’s strange that where the biggest challenges are is where you inevitably get the most creative responses (Needs must). So hats off to the innovators in Perth such as Professor Peter Newman who’s nurtured so much sustainability and also to Melbourne, where economic suffering is a first cousin to the blue ribbon hard line conservatives, yet manages to throw up a bunch of the most exciting developers and architects.
In housing there’s the amazing Jeremy McLeod, who needs to be Australian of the year at some point, and developers like Assemble, and Hip V. Hype whose founder Liam Wallis we finally got to know better in recent weeks and has thrown another creative curve ball our way.
Wallis who will be a panellist tonight at Let’s Hack Housing doesn’t just shore up his learnings and contacts for his own benefit – he’s worked on Nightingale Housing’s first two projects, eight current Assemble projects and he comes to Sydney to help NSW government developer Landcom on its ambitions for better. It’s about sharing the evidenced based learnings he says.
Nice.
But what it is about Melbourne we asked him? Is it something in the water?
Well, maybe, he said. But probably it’s the small batch of “crazy” people who want to do outstanding things and are supported by an incredible eco-system of others who are dedicated to purpose. They tend to congregate in Melbourne’s northern suburbs; south of the river, not so much.
So after Max Chandler-Mather lit the fire on housing by doing what change makers do – and that’s a cause agitation (because no big change ever came from polite conversations) there is finally the hint of a murmur that things might change.
The mooted proposals are changes in tax – both negative gearing and capital gains tax for investors. It’s a start but already the conservative financial commentators are saying it will cause a reduction in rental properties – forgetting that there’s a bill ramp up public housing again – for now stalled in the Senate.
Strange how economists that are meant to look at the wholistic view of the economy inevitably fail to look at all angles and forget humans should be involved in the modelling.
At tonight’s Let’s Hack Housing we can ask leading economics and finance writer Michael Pascoe why this is so and what he thinks about the negativity.
And we can ask what you think of this huge schemozzle. Because this is really your show.
But keep in mind that this is now a major global issue in many parts of the world. But also that some cities and countries have terrific housing solutions – we can join them!