1956-1970

In 1956, the first CSHA was concluded by the Robert Menzies government that, together with some states, had been agitating for some time for home sales, not rentals. Menzies then redirected 30% of Commonwealth funds to building societies and state banks to subsidize finance for home ownership.

Public housing completion declined to about 9% of all dwellings, and the state authorities sold off much the public housing; sometimes more was sold than was built in a year. By 1969, the NSW Housing Commission had sold almost 100,000 dwellings, one third of all the dwellings it had built.

The conservative governments turned against public housing, reducing the size of public housing sectors and shifted the public housing's clientele away from workers and their families to people on a social wage or those who were unemployed.

1970’s

The Whitlam government had big intentions for housing and urban renewal. Through the Department for Urban and Regional Development (DURD) the minister (and sometime deputy PM) Tom Uren brokered deals with State and Local Governments for the provision of public housing in Glebe and Woolloomooloo, guided by the ‘Green Bans’ promoted by the BLF and Jack Mundey (see here).

1980-1990’s

The Hawke Labor government of 1983 negotiated building more public housing as part of the deal to encourage wage restraint. And Brian Howe, again deputy PM, took a particular interest in developing a joint program with the States called the Local Government and Community Housing Program, referred to as ‘Logchop’. The idea within the program was to provide public housing to those at the margins who were not normally housed publicly, artists, students and refugees, in cooperatives and local groups.

The program was never able to effectively take off before the government changed to the Howard coalition, that made further cuts to funding social housing under the CHSA. Each return to conservative government saw a continuing fall in public housing: the share of dwelling completions fell from an average of 16% from 1945 to 1972, to 9% over the 1980’s and fell again to 5% over the 1990’s.

2000-today

By the millennium almost no public housing estates were being built, and state governments were being encouraged to sell off the most valuable stock in order to build new housing. Most recently the NSW Berejiklian government has done so with alacrity, selling off the buildings in Miller's Point that had been public housing for 120 years, together with the purpose-built Sirius apartment building.

The other direction is privatisation, where public housing stock is passed into the ownership of Community Housing Providers, not-for-profits run by a board with an imprimatur to maintain the stock and expand it from the rental income. CHPs are in their infancy, and it may be too early to judge their success.

Now

Our obsession with providing houses for ownership has blinded governments to the need for social housing for the poorest 20%, but at the same time they have failed in their mission to provide home ownership. Lose – lose. Public housing in Australia has now shrunk to 4% of all dwellings, compared to say Denmark which has 20% (and 60% home ownership).

Australia has not had a coherent housing policy, ever. The likelihood that this Labor government will develop one is equal to teaching a kangaroo to do the macarena. The only two times we had some sort of cogent policy it was led by a deputy Labor PM. But Tanya Plibersek, the only member with that experience has been sidelined by the PM.

But we cannot despair. We need to plan big for the day when we have a government in Canberra that has a social agenda as well as an economic one, one that includes social housing. And we need to plan small for the many CHP’s that are now in the grip of privatisation. They need good models, and that’s our task.

Cross-Sections are Friday musings from Tone Wheeler, following on from the Tone on Tuesday columns (where much of this was discussed in July 2023). Remember: amateurs draw plans, professionals draw sections; never at cross purposes.

Tone Wheeler

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