Published in the South Sydney Herald, February 2017

Can our new Premier improve the score?

NSW has a new Premier. We’re relieved to see the back of Casino (or is it Chainsaw?) Mike, but will our new Premier be better?

Premier Berejiklian has already indicated how her Government will respond on a number of key issues. On others, we’re still in the dark. Over the coming months we will see whether the Premier is genuinely willing to listen to community concerns and take action to repair some of the disastrous decisions made under former Premier Baird.

Reports that the National Affordable Housing Agreement will be scrapped at the next budget have sent shockwaves through the housing and homelessness sector, with advocates warning that abandoning the agreement will have devastating effects on the most vulnerable members of our community.

NSW Housing spokesperson Jenny Leong MP said that, while the agreement was flawed, it was an essential source of funding for public housing.

Every single major housing market in Australia is ‘severely unaffordable’ according to the latest Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey. Sydney is second on the list of the most severely unaffordable housing markets in the world.

Greens housing spokesperson Senator Lee Rhiannon and Greens NSW housing spokesperson Jenny Leong say it is absurd that both federal and state governments insist that they can tackle housing affordability without making any changes to unfair tax structures like negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts that favour investors.

In response to new data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), which shows increased demand for Specialist Housing Services in NSW, NSW Greens spokesperson on Housing Jenny Leong MP, says urgent action is needed to address homelessness and housing affordability.

“The increase in demand for Specialists Homelessness Services is stark evidence of the housing affordability crisis we’re facing in NSW,” she said.

The NSW Government has proposed a number of reforms to the real estate and property services industry. While some of the proposals will improve the industry, the reforms do not do enough to protect the significant number of NSW residents who have dealings with the industry, either as renters or as the buyers or sellers of property.

The Greens say the split between state and federal Liberal ministers highlights the ongoing failure of the Turnbull government to act on the housing affordability crisis.

The third Rental Affordability Index (RAI) released today shows that Sydney remains Australia's least affordable city for renters and makes it clear that significant change is needed to address this crisis.

NSW Greens spokesperson on Housing and Member for Newtown Jenny Leong MP said:

"It is clear that any attempt to deliver housing affordability can't start and end with supply alone. What we need is an increase to affordable supply. Unless there are mandated significant targets for affordable rental housing in new developments, rents will continue to soar."

The Baird Liberal Government has released its final UrbanGrowth plan for The Parramatta Rd corridor, including Taverners Hill. The density of the precinct will increase more than 400%, but there is no new infrastructure to support these new residents.

Published in the South Sydney Herald, November 2016

For more than 100 years, government funded public housing has been available to low income earners in NSW.

Government owned estates provided working class people, the elderly, new immigrants, young families, and working people in low-income, essential services the opportunity to live in our cities and regional centres, and participate in their local communities.

In recent decades we have seen a shift. Successive governments have under invested in maintaining safe, secure, affordable housing for low-income earners. Many public housing tenants suffer long standing issues around maintenance and safety.

Today we called on the NSW Government to abolish no grounds evictions and to support legislation to improve housing affordability.