Labor: Housing Costs ‘Through the Roof’

Media release – Senator Helen Polley, Senator for Tasmania &Ross Hart, Federal Labor candidate for Bass, 30 November 2021

COST OF RENT THROUGH THE ROOF IN BASS

Renters in Bass are paying around $2000 more this year to keep a roof over their head, making it harder and harder to get ahead at a time when wages have flatlined.

After almost a decade of a federal Liberal government, housing has never been more unaffordable. This is particularly felt for families, pensioners, and young people who rent in our community.

Source: Domain Rental Report, September 2021

Scott Morrison and Bridget Archer like to pretend this is not a problem, and that proves how out of touch they really are. House prices and rent have never been higher in northern Tasmania, which makes life difficult for thousands of northern Tasmanians.

“I speak to members of my community on a daily basis struggling to make ends meet. They simply can’t afford to pay their rent so they are foregoing food and other essentials in order to have a roof over their head,” Senator Polley said.

“This is the biggest cost that thousands of people in our community pay each week and they are struggling to keep up. And yet Bridget Archer and Scott Morrison have no plan to fix it,” Ross Hart said.

From childcare and petrol to out of pocket health costs and rent, families in Bass know that it’s harder to get ahead under the Morrison Government.

“Australia used to be the Lucky County. Home ownership is now out of the question for too many Tasmanians and now rent is unaffordable. We are no longer the Lucky Country from a housing perspective and it is essential to quality of life,” Senator Polley said.

Labor has a real plan to make sure Australia builds back from this pandemic stronger, more self-reliant, more inclusive.

This includes building more affordable housing. An Albanese Labor Government will establish the Housing Australia Future Fund which will build 30,000 social and affordable homes across the country.

Over the first five years, it will build:

• 20,000 new social housing properties, including 4,000 homes for women and children fleeing domestic and family violence and older women on low incomes who are at risk of homelessness; and
• 10,000 affordable homes for the heroes of the pandemic – frontline workers like police, nurses and cleaners that kept us safe in the covid pandemic.