By ALANA MITCHELSON
HOUSING affordability barriers would be a major priority under a Shorten Government, with a national strategy to halve homelessness by 2025 and make housing more affordable to Australians.
Figures estimate that there are as many as 105,000 Australians who are homeless on any given night, including more than 1000 from Casey-Cardinia.
Labor federal candidate for McMillan Chris Buckingham said he was serious about addressing homelessness in the region.
“I have been an advocate for people grappling with homelessness through St Vincent de Paul’s CEO Sleepout for many years,” Mr Buckingham said.
“I know people who have struggled to get safe housing and accommodation for their family. No one should have to be homeless in our country and the time is right for a collaborative strategy with achievable targets.”
For many Australians, the dream of home ownership remains out of reach while for others, high housing costs are taking up more than one third of their incomes.
Mr Buckingham said a Shorten Government would develop a national affordable housing strategy to drive the development of an agreed, co-ordinated approach to addressing housing affordability in Australia.
This would include the appointment of a Minister for Housing and Homelessness, listing housing affordability as a standing item on the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agenda, the development of an Affordable Housing Industry Plan, the investigation of national rental standards and to re-establish the National Housing Supply Council. Labor would limit negative gearing to new property from July 2017 to provide an incentive for new construction and to create jobs in the building industry.
A Shorten Government has also committed $88 million over two years for a new Safe Housing program to improve transitional housing options for women and children fleeing family violence and $3 million for a one-off establishment grant to Homes4Homes (H4H) to raise capital funds to invest back into affordable housing supply.
