The federal government’s first major tax reform in nearly 30 years was a significant achievement that suggests we may have turned a corner on the housing crisis. It is a good time to revisit Australia’s housing history within the broader history of social policy.
This is a story of public investment for economic growth as well as for the needs of citizens. The railways, telegraphs, hospitals, schools and welfare that gave Australia a reputation for a “pragmatic” rather than “doctrinaire” approach to national development are well known. But governments also invested in housing despite some powerful resistance by interest groups.
