More People + Few Houses = Homelessness (Thanks Labor)

I have never seen homeless people in my neighbourhood before, but in the last six to 12 months, there have been lots. Now they’re not what I would call your traditional homeless. Many of them have cars, lots of clothes, nice tents, and they eat well – well, I saw about 10 homeless people sitting on camp chairs in the local park eating McDonald’s and Subway. Obviously, they’re getting an income, I presume government payments of some sort, but clearly, those payments aren’t enough to pay the rent. Or perhaps there simply isn’t enough houses for them to find a house.

According to an ABC article released this morning, rents are at a record high across Australia, not to mention that here in Queensland, vacancy rates remain near record lows. “Australia's rental market continues to accelerate as supply shortage plagues the market”. Simply put, there are not enough houses. So what do you think would happen to this housing crisis when Australia experiences it’s biggest two-year population surge in its history, with an extra 650,000 migrants this financial year and next? (Well, according to The Australian newspaper at least).

I think the formula is simple: More People + Not Enough Houses = More Homelessness. You either need to reduce the number of people (which is obviously not on the agenda), or you need to build more houses. It’s very simple in my mind. Not enough homes are being built to keep pace with the nation’s annual population growth.

With regards to population growth, it should be noted that the previous two-year high was 577,000 in the 2008 and 2009 financial years, when then Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd urged the nation to embrace rapid population growth. “I actually believe in a big ­Australia, I make no ­apology for that,” Mr Rudd said in October 2009.

Look, I don’t like to play party politics, but as you may or may not know now, Australia is almost entirely ruled by the centre-left Labor Party. According to their website, “Australian Labor – A Better Future”. Traditionally, they claim to be a party of the people – to support the common man – a noble goal! But then why then are they allowing such a rapid increase in Australia’s population at a time when a growing number of people can’t afford, or can’t even find a home to live in? I don’t even care that it’s Labor. If it was the centre-right Liberal Party, I’d say exactly the same thing.

According to the Financial Review: “Record immigration, nowhere to live. Welcome to Australia’s rent crisis. A growing population, subdued construction and government inaction means people who don’t own their home should brace for more rent rises. How bad will it get?”

It’s a good question. Prime Minister Albanese claims to be governing for all Australians, but then what about all those Australians who have nowhere to live? As I said, the homeless people I’ve seen have got cars full of clothes, obviously meaning they didn’t use to be homeless, they recently became homeless. I mean, it’s all over the news. This is a crisis. Why then are the ruling Labor Party allowing more and more people into the country, which will only exacerbate the problem? Unless all these new people are carpenters who are going to be allowed to build lots more houses, well I’m afraid, Australia’s in trouble.

Look, I’m not against immigration – my wife’s an immigrant – but when there’s a housing shortage, and when there’s a growing number of homelessness, you don’t solve this problem by bringing in record numbers of new people. Am I wrong?

MUSIC
Allégro by Emmit Fenn