Brisbane is in the grips of a housing crisis. The problem is twofold. One, there are
not enough social and community homes available for the most vulnerable, to the
point where children and adults with chronic and terminal illnesses are dying on the
streets. Two, everyone else with an income are staring down the barrel of a lifetime
of renting or mortgage stress if they can even scrape together a deposit without the
bank of mum and dad.
Some people with particular agendas have been quick to blame immigration as a
catch all reason for our nation’s woes, particularly in the housing space. The fact we
saw huge increases in house prices during a period of stagnant population growth
five years ago, should help us figure out the problem is more complex.
Supply is a key element but not just supply of luxury products. Apartments
overlooking the river commanding a $2m price tag does not help the situation.
Anyone who’s primary source of income is a wage for their work may be only a
couple of pay checks away from homelessness. That is why we need a solid safety
net of social and community housing that is well located near the transport, services
and utilities required to help people get back on their feet.
Brisbane’s Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner always wanted the old Visy site to become
“Southbank 2.0.” As such, Brisbane City Council were originally going to buy the site
but were beaten to it by the former Labor state government who wanted to develop a
broadcast centre for the Olympics.
That left Council with $200 million. The Brisbane Labor Opposition in Council called
for that money to be used to help alleviate the housing crisis through grant funding
for community housing providers. The Olympics legacy we wanted to see was more
housing, for more people.
Now Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie has ignored all these ideas, by handing the site
over to property developers to maximise profit by doing away with any requirements
to include social, community or affordable housing in these high-density projects.
The new developments in South Brisbane, including the proposal on the former Visy
site, offer a rare and unique opportunity to facilitate more thousands more social and
community homes for our growing city.
But you need a government, lobbied by a Council that is dedicated to housing people
as a first priority, before developer profits.
But by scrapping social and community housing targets in the Kurilpa TLPI and the
Woolloongabba Priority Development Area, the LNP are creating a two-tiered city
where only the elite of our society may live close to work, school, shops, services,
entertainment precincts and the public transport options that connect them.
The Olympic and Paralympic Games were sold to Brisbane as an opportunity to
build new homes, congestion-busting public transport, and community facilities.
Right now in Brisbane we have a housing and homelessness crisis, the worst
congestion in Australia and a city that feels bursting at the seams. What action is
taken today will have a generational impact.
Amid the housing and homelessness crisis, the question for the LNP now is, how do
they want to be remembered?
Cr. Jared Cassidy is the Leader of the Brisbane Labor Opposition in Brisbane City Council.
