The Hodgman Government has failed to deliver on affordable housing, with the housing waiting list skyrocketing to more than 3,600 applications under Minister Petrusma. Under a Greens' Minister, the waiting list was brought down to its lowest level in a decade.
That is indicative of huge housing stress in our community and too many Tasmanians without a secure, affordable place to call home.
For two State Budgets, the Liberals made no new allocation to increase affordable housing supply. They are now playing catch up at the expense of disadvantaged Tasmanians and flogging off public housing assets in the process.
The fact is that the additional stock promised by the government will only partially deal with the growth in the waiting list, and they won’t deliver until 2019. In the meantime, disadvantaged Tasmanians will continue to suffer.
The Minister conveniently ignores what this deal will cost the next generation. Publicly owned housing assets are being given away to leverage new stock. However, they only have to deliver in the short term.
They may be delivering 172 new houses now, but it will cost the next generation 504 homes.
The government is leveraging our public assets and future housing security for short term gains because they have been nobbled by their Federal counterparts who cut the National Rental Affordability Scheme, and belatedly allocated capital funding in their third State Budget.
This has all the makings of a short sighted fiscal folly that the next generation will have to pay for unless both Federal and State Governments renew their once longstanding commitment to invest in providing secure, affordable homes for Tasmanians who need them.
