So housing affordability has taken centre stage in the campaign. And would you believe it, the policy is designed around pumping up demand rather than addressing supply.
As economist Saul Eslake has noted, pretty much every major housing affordability policy going back to the 1960s has been about pumping up demand. This has especially been the case since 2000 and the John Howard years, when he was infamously quoted in 2003 saying “I don’t get people stopping me in the street and saying, ‘John you’re outrageous, under your government the value of my house has increased’.”
