The housing conundrum
Because talking about the housing crisis is easier than actually fixing it.
“Everyone complains about the weather, but nobody ever seems to do anything about it.”
– Mark Twain (maybe)
Swap “weather” for “housing crisis” and you’ve summed up Tasmanian politics for the last decade.
Another housing scorecard, another bottom ranking for Tasmania. According to the Housing Industry Association, we’re the worst-performing state in the country. Again. Rental vacancies are near zero, construction targets are a fantasy, and social housing wait times have more than quadrupled since 2019.
And yet nothing changes.
The government promises 10,000 new homes by 2032, but can’t even hit quarterly build targets now. That’s like promising to run a marathon next year then going down the pub.
The opposition? Missing in action. They’re either too scared to offend a focus group or too stuck in the same old policy loops. And while the Greens do have a housing policy with teeth, it’s coated in so much ideology that most Tasmanians can’t chew it. They want a housing revolution, but only if it comes with climate caveats and anti-growth rhetoric.
Meanwhile, people are being crushed between the cost of living and the cost of waiting. Young couples can’t find rentals. Seniors are couch surfing. Kids are growing up in caravans. And politicians are still announcing “reviews”, “taskforces”, and “bold visions” that quietly expire after the press release.
It’s not just a policy failure. It’s a values failure.
Because housing isn’t complicated.
It’s supply, it’s security, and it’s political will.
We had it right after World War II when governments just built the homes we needed. No stamp duty waivers. No shared equity gimmicks. No media stunts.
Just houses.
So let’s stop treating this like a theoretical debate about markets, and start treating it like the emergency it is.
Everyone complains about the housing crisis. It’s time someone actually did something about it.