31 March

This is a social catastrophe that still has a long way to run. Cities and towns (including Bathurst) can’t even house essential workers. The standard idea that it’s all a problem of ‘supply’ isn’t right. It’s a lack of supply of *affordable houses*, something a market system has never been able to produce. Right now what are we doing to control inflation? Raising interest rates, which stops the building of houses. When asked on Q&A the other night, the panellists talking about housing actually all said they *didn’t* want house prices to drop, they just want to ‘moderate growth in prices’. Dropping house prices would crash the Australian economy. There’s only ever been one solution. Government has to build LOTS of affordable public housing.