A cruel lie is at the heart of Michael Ferguson’s first Budget as Treasurer.
It exposes eight years of broken promises and false hopes for Tasmanians looking for a secure, affordable home.
Eight years of promising to build thousands of new homes and delivering less than 600 as the housing crisis rages, driving Tasmanians into, and closer to, homelessness.
Over the past eight years, the Liberals have promised thousands of homes, but Productivity Commission data show only 578 additional properties have been delivered.
The latest State Budget continues the con. The Government’s big pre-budget announcement was for $1.1 billion over ten years into housing, but the actual budget delivers only $35 million, or 3%, of the big spending promised in the billion dollar headline.
No new money is allocated next financial year.
This is just the latest housing funding spin in the Liberals’ history of gaslighting Tasmanians to cover their inaction on housing.
In 2016-17, the Liberal Treasurer claimed the budget would construct “941 new homes” across the forward estimates, but the Productivity Commission confirms only 186 were added over this period.
In the following budget, Peter Gutwein said the Liberals were “already delivering on its commitment to build over 900 new homes”, when the data show Tasmanians suffered a net loss of 212 public and community homes.
In 2018-19, the Liberals said they would build 1,500 new homes, but so far there is only 697 reported – less than half of what was promised.
In the last 4 years, the number of liveable public homes, has decreased by 34 down to 6,944. And over this time, while the housing waiting list grows, the number of new households helped each year has also declined by nearly half, down from 759 to 401.
The Liberals’ housing promises are cynical trickery. Tasmanians without stable homes are suffering, and many people who have stable homes are struggling to afford them.
Housing is a human right, we have a crisis, and real people are suffering. It is not good enough to treat housing as a false good news story budget announceable, and to forget about actually delivering on your promises.
Fact sheet available here
https://tasmps.greens.org.au/sites/default/files/Housing%20in%20Tasmania...