Michael Pascoe: Government’s multibillion-dollar splurge on private landlords hurts public housing

Public and community housing is continuing to fall behind private landlord funding, Michael Pascoe writes. Photo: Getty

The federal government spent more money directly subsidising private landlords over the past two financial years than it is putting aside to fund social housing indefinitely into the future.

I don’t mean the scores of billions of “tax expenditures” effectively subsidising both owner-occupiers and landlords, but the $10.4 billion in Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA) paid to private landlords over the past two years.