For the Commonwealth, the best measure is rent assistance. For the states, it’s a mix of two-thirds first homebuyer grants and one-third stamp duty discounts.
Co-operatives make up only a small part of Australia’s accommodation stock but their users say the benefits warrant it being considered as a way of easing the housing crisis.
Stress, poor pay and job insecurity are driving professional chefs away from the hospitality industry in Australia and New Zealand. Tourism is also feeling the impact of the looming skill shortage.
The Fair Work Commission has been given new tools. Among them is the power to eliminate gender-based undervaluation of work in entire awards and groups of awards.
The number of active short-term rental listings is a small fraction of the total number of dwellings in Australia – and many listings are not in the city areas of great housing need.
Working from home is bringing more of us into the workforce and better matching us to jobs. It shouldn’t be seen as a favour to us, but as a favour to the economy.
Neither investors nor super funds are prepared to wear the losses needed to put low-income Australians into housing. The government should double the size of its Housing Australia Future Fund.
Labour’s Modern Slavery Reporting Bill would require businesses to act if they suspect worker exploitation in their operations or supply chains. But will the National-led government support it?
Peter Martin, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
The best measure of living standards – real household disposable income per capita – has been going backwards for two years. It’s the biggest dive in living standards in half a century.
Negative gearing is popular because it lowers home owners’ tax bills. But its critics say it has reduced affordable housing stock keeping the less well off out of the market.
Despite different theories, there is no simple answer to whether prospective home buyers are better off buying before or after the expected interest rate drop in the next year.
Woolworths promoted itself as a place where “goods are so cheap and shopping easy and pleasant” when it opened 100 years ago. Australia’s biggest grocer has moved away from its humble beginnings.
Even changing the tax system won’t end steadily-climbing property prices. They are the result of urbanisation, and while COVID has eased some of the pressures, it has added some more.
The naming for the first time of specific companies, not just industries, and what they pay their male and female workers is set to pressure employers to take action.