I find it difficult to believe the Andrews led Labor government can get it so wrong when it comes to public housing. Traditionally Labor governments have built and managed public housing to put a roof over people’s heads who have difficulty in accessing both the private rental market and the home ownership market. A strong public housing sector puts downward pressure on private rents and housing prices especially for first home buyers.
Th Andrews led Labor government has decided to add a new layer to this mix – the social, community and affordable housing sector. Private organisations (both not for profit and profit driven) will have loans they raise with private banks to extend housing stocks they will own and manage guaranteed by the Victorian taxpayer. Over one billion dollars of state guarantees will be provided to this sector to raise capital to build houses they will have the titles to.
Another 100 million dollars has been set aside that privately owned and run housing associations can borrow from the Victorian state Treasury to build housing stocks which they will eventually own. Facing increased pressure from Victorians, the Victorian Housing Minister Martin Foley has temporarily stepped back from handing over public housing titles to the private sector. Concerned about the Victorian Greens ability to win a significant number of inner city Melbourne seats at the next state election if they continue to give away public titles to housing associations, they have been forced to ditch this policy.
This does not mean they have stopped transferring the management of public housing stock to the private sector – the management of another 4,000 publicly owned units and houses will be transferred to the private sector in the next few months.
Private public partnerships have, as we have seen in the past, increased the cost of providing services to the community. The privatisation of the TAFE sector has been, and continues to be, a disaster. Using public private partnerships to provide housing for those Victorians who cannot enter the housing market is a recipe for disaster.
The Victorian Labor government, under the direction of the current Housing Minister Martin Foley, is intent on destroying the public housing sector. The Turnbull government is on the verge of scrapping the multi-billion dollar National Affordability Agreement set up by the Rudd Labor government because it has failed to increase the number of public houses available to Australians.
Instead of messing around with the private sector, the Andrews led Labor government should be building and managing public housing, not destroying it.
Dr. Joseph Toscano / Joint Convenor Defend And Extend Public Housing Australia