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Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Christian Amiot.

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Speaker 1: It's Thursday, October thirty one. The Prime Minister is denying

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Speaker 1: having called Alan Joyce to request flight upgrades, as pressure

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Speaker 1: mounts on Anthony Albanesi to refer himself to the National

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Speaker 1: Anti Corruption Commission over allegations he benefited from a close

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Speaker 1: relationship with the former Quantus boss. New South Wales's Aboriginal

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Speaker 1: land councils have called for amendments to heritage laws that

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Speaker 1: would enshrine their authority in legislation. It comes after a

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Speaker 1: controversial decision by Environment Minister Tanya Plimasek to block a

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Speaker 1: gold mine in Blaney on contested Indigenous heritage grounds. Those

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Speaker 1: stories alive right now at the Australian dot Com dot

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Speaker 1: a U. Australia is in the grips of a housing

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Speaker 1: crisis and the major parties are struggling to come up

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Speaker 1: with policy that gives first home buyers and renters a

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Speaker 1: fair go. In today's episode, why a New Alliance is

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Speaker 1: taking a grassroots approach to housing policy, laundry similar to

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Speaker 1: what I've got now a lot more stuff in it.

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Speaker 1: This is me at one of the dozens of property

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Speaker 1: inspections I've embarked upon over the last year. Yeah, a

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Speaker 1: study nook, Okay, you could make into my office. I

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Speaker 1: remember this apartment distinctly, one bedroom with a study nook

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Speaker 1: and no parking, lots of.

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Speaker 2: Storage in here.

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Speaker 1: They've got a dress well.

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Speaker 2: And then opens on to a really big backming.

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Speaker 1: But it's not the floor plan that made it memorable. No,

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Speaker 1: I remember this apartment because it's how I learned the

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Speaker 1: hard way that you can't get emotionally invested if you

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Speaker 1: don't want your little first home buy a heart to

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Speaker 1: be broken.

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Speaker 3: It is amazing. These opportunities are hard to find. So

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Speaker 3: ladies and gentlemen, where do we open the bidding?

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Speaker 1: That apartment, one bedroom with a windowless study nook and

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Speaker 1: no parking, sold it auction for about two hundred thousand

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Speaker 1: dollars above the price guide, well out of my range

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Speaker 1: and the reach of millions of Australians just like me.

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Speaker 3: Hammer goes up, all silent, all done, selling sold cir Congratulations.

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Speaker 1: But over the last year I've persevered queueing alongside couples

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Speaker 1: with dual incomes and first home buyers backed by their

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Speaker 1: parents to inspect smaller and smaller properties that ultimately sell

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Speaker 1: for more and more over the price guides given by sellers.

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Speaker 1: I've watched in horror as Sydney's median home price saws

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Speaker 1: to astronomical levels while my borrowing capacity inexplicably declines. I've

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Speaker 1: made concessions as a twenty percent deposit gets further and

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Speaker 1: further out of reach. I've watched my credit ratings suffer

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Speaker 1: as ninety day pre approvals lapse in the blink of

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Speaker 1: an eye. I made some headway with a high interest

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Speaker 1: to savings account, and then despaired as I handed almost

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Speaker 1: every single cent of the bonus interest I'd earned over

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Speaker 1: to the tax department. I've seriously considered stashing what's left

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Speaker 1: under my mattress for the rest of this financial year

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Speaker 1: in hopes my prospects will improve, though at this point

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Speaker 1: I'm not confident, and I'm not the only one.

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Speaker 2: In July and August, Amplify conducted polling of four thousand

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Speaker 2: Australians and that revealed it ninety five percent of people

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Speaker 2: rank housing availability and affordability among their top priority issues.

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Speaker 1: Jeff Chambers is The Australian's chief political correspondent.

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Speaker 2: The polling also showed that trust in politicians and governments

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Speaker 2: and the handling of housing policy has never been lower,

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Speaker 2: and some of that could probably be linked to the

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Speaker 2: COVID pandemic the rise of social media, but the polling

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Speaker 2: clearly shows that Australians want to have a proper say

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Speaker 2: in the development of housing policy.

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Speaker 1: Housing policy is shaping up to be a key election

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Speaker 1: issue and it could even decide who wins government in

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Speaker 1: early twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 2: So Anthony Albernezi and Peter Dutton at a federal government

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Speaker 2: level are at polar opposites when it comes to housing policy,

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Speaker 2: and those spillover areas such as migration, superannuation for housing,

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Speaker 2: associated infrastructure and taxes. This issue with housing has been

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Speaker 2: a long time coming and it encompasses all three tiers

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Speaker 2: of government, local, state and federal. It has never really

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Speaker 2: traditionally been the domain of a federal government for the

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Speaker 2: Commonwealth to take courage of housing policy, had associated taxes,

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Speaker 2: community infrastructure as such. But it has gotten so bad

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Speaker 2: at a local government level in particular, and you've got

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Speaker 2: different taxes, different approaches to stamp duty, different priorities, different

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Speaker 2: first home buyer schemes that have just changed and morphed

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Speaker 2: over the years. The other really big issue here and

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Speaker 2: particularly in recent years, has been this record surgeon migration,

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Speaker 2: and this is where the common Wealth does have a role.

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Speaker 2: So there's a lot of flip sides when it comes

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Speaker 2: to housing now. In terms of a federal response through

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Speaker 2: national cabinets such, it hasn't worked both sides, but in

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Speaker 2: particular the Albanezi government are putting up these tens of

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Speaker 2: billion dollar programs talking about unlocking supply, but there's very

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Speaker 2: little evidence or proof that's going to happen anytime soon.

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Speaker 2: So big money from all sides of politics, big promises,

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Speaker 2: and then this sort of chasm. We're about five or

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Speaker 2: six months out from the next federal election and really

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Speaker 2: the politics around housing has never been so toxic and divisive.

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Speaker 1: Now, a nonpartisan alliance of business, social and youth leaders

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Speaker 1: are backing a grassroots approach to housing policy reform. The group,

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Speaker 1: known as Amplify, is the brainchild of SEEKH co founder

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Speaker 1: Paul Bassett and former Commonwealth public servant Georgina Harrison. On

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Speaker 1: its board is former New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrete,

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Speaker 1: Tab Corp Chief executive Gillan McLaughlin and Bunning's managing director

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Speaker 1: Michael Schneider, among others.

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Speaker 2: It's not an aligned think tank or a politically linked group,

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Speaker 2: and its purpose and the ambition of it is seeking

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Speaker 2: to harness people power and draw on real life experiences

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Speaker 2: of normal Australians to feed into policy development that is

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Speaker 2: completely separate from the political process. And their idea is

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Speaker 2: that they'll have online and in person forums across the

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Speaker 2: country over the coming months and that process will culminate

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Speaker 2: in February next year when they randomly select a diverse

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Speaker 2: group of one hundred Australians to assemble in Sydney for

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Speaker 2: the first Amplification event, and that will be solely focused

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Speaker 2: on housing. Amplify will provide access to a range of

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Speaker 2: independent experts and they'll help punters guide their ideas into

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Speaker 2: policy development, and once they get to that endpoint where

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Speaker 2: they land on a range of policy platforms, Amplify will

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Speaker 2: then make those representations and publicly promote what Australians, normal

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Speaker 2: Australians want and believe that the government should be doing

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Speaker 2: in relation to housing.

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Speaker 1: Experts like Jeff are speculating that an election will be

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Speaker 1: called for March or April of next year, so isn't

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Speaker 1: that cutting things a bit? Fine?

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Speaker 2: It is, but quite often you can maximize your effect

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Speaker 2: if you're unveiling, announcing, launching, agitating in policy areas right

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Speaker 2: in the thrust of a campaign. It's not to say

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Speaker 2: that an incoming government or a a political party who

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Speaker 2: is interested in some of the ideas that are developed

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Speaker 2: won't pick those up, maybe look at those post election,

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Speaker 2: or potentially feed them into policies of their own that

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Speaker 2: might align with what this process provides, and that all

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Speaker 2: tiers of government and all politicians from every party will

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Speaker 2: be able to very clearly see what the people are

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Speaker 2: thinking and some of their ideas put forward.

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Speaker 1: Coming up the major parties make their pitch for the

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Speaker 1: roof over your head. Prime Minister Anthony Albanesi has donned

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Speaker 1: a whole lot of hard hats and high viz. Lately

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Speaker 1: he's been out and about sprinking Labour's multi pronged solution

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Speaker 1: to the housing crisis.

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Speaker 3: This is a fantastic project, so close to amenity, so

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Speaker 3: close to facilities.

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Speaker 1: It's an example of what we want to achieve. One

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Speaker 1: part is called the Housing Australia Future Fund and it's

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Speaker 1: worth ten billion dollars. It was passed into legislation at

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Speaker 1: the end of last year. The goal there is to

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Speaker 1: build twenty thousand new social homes and ten thousand new

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Speaker 1: affordable homes across the country over five years. There's also

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Speaker 1: a three billion dollar new home bonus, which funnels funding

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Speaker 1: to states and territories that build more than their share

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Speaker 1: of the government's one point two million new home goal. Plus,

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Speaker 1: there are five hundred million dollar grants available to connect

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Speaker 1: essential services to new housing developments, but The Australian's reporting

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Speaker 1: shows a good chunk of those funds are tied up

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Speaker 1: in bureaucracy, and that means the government is likely to

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Speaker 1: fall short of its lofty housing goals. On the flip side,

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Speaker 1: the coalition says it will use a five billion dollar

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Speaker 1: user or Lose it infrastructure fund to build five hundred

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Speaker 1: thousand new homes around the country. The cash would be

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Speaker 1: granted to local councils and state and territory owned providers

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Speaker 1: to build infrastructure like water, power, sewerage and access roads,

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Speaker 1: but rescind it if the work doesn't make progress after

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Speaker 1: twelve months and if it wins the next election. The

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Speaker 1: opposition has promised to freeze changes to the national construction

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Speaker 1: code for a decade to protect families from red tape,

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Speaker 1: and the growing costs of evolving energy efficiency standards.

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Speaker 2: The other really big issues I think for both sides

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Speaker 2: is getting those migration settings right, because a lot of

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Speaker 2: migrants are filling jobs that Australians don't want to do

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Speaker 2: and where we have shortages. And then on the flip

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Speaker 2: side of that, the construction sector is suffering crippling skilled

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Speaker 2: shortages as well, and costs for supplies that are a

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Speaker 2: really high left and there's big delays on projects because

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Speaker 2: you can't get trades people in and things are blowing out.

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Speaker 2: And I think demand is one issue, but I do

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Speaker 2: think we need to have enough houses and I think

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Speaker 2: people need to be realistic about where they want to live,

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Speaker 2: and so many people, including migrants, want to live in

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Speaker 2: the cities and I don't see either side really coming

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Speaker 2: up with a clear solution on that at this point.

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Speaker 1: Jeff Chambers is The Australian's chief political correspondent. You can

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Speaker 1: read all his reporting on Australia's housing crisis right now

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Speaker 1: at The Australian dot com dot au