Eric Abetz: Better planning needed to address Tasmania's housing crisis

Our Lord at His birth couldn't even find a room at the inn, so the Good Book tells us requiring his parents to settle down in a stable for the night, which also became a makeshift maternity ward for His birth.

As we celebrate His coming this Christmas with its foundational message of purpose and hope for, and in, our lives, let's pause, reflect and be thankful for all our blessings.

No matter what our circumstances, there are always things for which to give thanks.

Last Christmas the writer's children, amongst other gifts, gave him the book "The Happiest Man on Earth - The Beautiful Life of an Auschwitz Survivor". Moving, inspirational and a guide to how we might live our life unburdened by events and recognising there are always people worse off than ourselves.

Whilst a positive message deserving of full embrace, we should never allow that thinking to become distorted by applying it negatively to those who may be worse off than ourselves.

Too often it is easy to dismiss others' needs by glibly pointing out something for which they ought to be thankful. So, at this time of year it's good to ask ourselves how we can provide time or material support to those in need. The homeless baby Jesus should remind us of the housing needs for many in our community. Too many are confronted with no housing or uncertainty of ongoing housing.

Prior to entering the Senate, the writer helped establish a women's shelter and a youth shelter and was their honorary legal adviser for a number of years. The stories of homelessness and destitution broke one's heart - especially around Christmas.

Fun, family and fellowship, which the writer had always associated with Christmas growing up, was for others a period of feuds, fallouts and friendlessness. And the sense of alienation was enhanced when there was no home, let alone a bed on which reliance could be placed.

Tasmania's current housing shortages were well highlighted by this paper (26/11). Some time ago there was the suggestion that if only the federal government were to forgive Tasmania's housing debt things would be set aright.

Describing such an approach as "lazy" and "rewarding bad behaviour" the writer incurred the possibly deserved and foreseeable ire of some of his state colleagues and the odd editorial and cartoon. On reflection, possibly crazy brave.

Holding to the notion that debts incurred need to be repaid and governments should lead by example didn't exactly win many friends, or indeed any, if recollection serves correctly. However, the writer did offer that the supply of housing may be the actual issue and land release and planning were the drivers of affordability.

Write off a debt or deal with the more difficult core issue of planning the option ultimately adopted should have been obvious to all.

Yet, The Examiner expose on the homelessness risk in the north, which is regrettably mirrored all around our state, suggests things have deteriorated despite the debt forgiveness. In fairness, one suspects things may be even worse but for the debt write-off. We should have done both with hindsight.

The federal and state Liberal governments have pumped huge sums of taxpayer dollars into affordable housing in a bid to help ease the situation.

But if, even for all the right reasons, government becomes an active buyer in the scarce land and housing market it stands to reason that prices will increase. Grade 12 economics taught that if demand increased, prices would go up unless the overall supply was commensurately increased with the growing demand. Which brings us back to land release and planning, the core issues. To lower the cost of housing for all, we need to increase supply, and with haste.

The speed and cost of land release and planning impacts everyone's housing and rental costs.

Until we address those issues the forgiving of inter-governmental housing debts or splashing of taxpayer money into the marketplace competing with the private sector will exacerbate the issue.

Federally we've provided first home-owner subsidies, first home guarantees, new home guarantees, homebuilder, first home super saver and family home guarantee. All of which have sensationally increased demand boosting the tradie and building sector which is a very good outcome for them. But could the need for at least some of these artificial stimuli courtesy of our taxes been avoided if the restrictions on supply, land release and planning had been more fully addressed? One wonders.

A happy and blessed Christmas to all The Examiner's readership. May the blessing of Christmas impact our lives and through us the lives of others throughout 2022.