''But there is one issue where both sides ostensibly agree: greater levels of home ownership.''
''Opposition leader Peter Dutton shared similar views on home ownership with the press late last year: “the best way to empower Australians — to make them masters of their fate — is through home ownership.”
IMO - that kind of assumption only fosters the culture that has gotten Australia to where it is - in crisis
whilst it MAY be true to a degree-------------- the problem is that it brings focus onto home ownership -
and home ownership is NOT THE PROBLEM AT ALL
lack of having reasonably or cheap accommodation IS THE PROBLEM
there are certain things in life which are clad in steel and embedded in stone -
one thing is what humans need for survival ----- and they are obvious, air, water, warmth, shelter, sex - etc etc..
There is no rule that is set in stone that says ----------- 'shelter must be owned' - that is a belief system inside an economic culture.
And then when we get to some concept like Maslow's hierarchy of needs - we get this -
a tad more detail ---
but, notice that nowhere does Maslow state that home, shelter etc is needed to be 'owned' to enable people to progress up the hierarchy
'ownership' is NOT a fundamental requirement
AND what concentrating on 'owership' does is to breed in the very problems that prevent ascension up the ladder of human needs
because in a country like Australia - what it means is that people co habit - and they co own, and then they split up - so then more dwellings are needed --
it also means that governments go hard at getting people into home ownership - which all it really does is to raise the cost of accomodation - it puts up house prices and it results in investors in houses requiring higher returns ----------- which naturally raises home affordability
and it's home affordability that is the problem - along with a massive home shortage - a shelter shortage.
To go down the path, bi partisan or not of 'increasing home ownership' is badly flawed
what Australia needs is people off the streets and into affordable accommodation -
and that means one thing ------------- a focus on welfare and social housing
that's where the bipartisanship should be ------
house your population, feed your population, keep your population fit and healthy and educate your population
do that and the rest will look after itself
social housing, social housing, social housing -------------------------- we have proved beyond all shadow of doubt that private enterprise cannot do welfare and social housing
so - private ownership is a fail ------------- let us not go on focusing on what does not work and has failed
let's get back to what did work ------------- social housing
