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For an increasing proportion of Australian households, the Australian dream of home ownership is no longer an option. Neoliberal housing policy and the financialisation of housing has resulted in a housing affordability crisis. Historically, Australian housing policy has afforded only a limited role to local government. This article analyses the results of a nation-wide survey of Australian local governments’ perceptions of housing affordability in their local government area, the possibilities for their meaningful intervention, the challenges they face, the role of councillors and councils’ perceptions of what levels of government should take responsibility for housing. Almost all of the respondents from Sydney and Melbourne councils were clear that there is a housing affordability crisis in their local government area. We apply a framework analysing housing policy in the context of neoliberalism and the related financialisation of housing in order to analyse the housing affordability crisis in Sydney and Melbourne. We conclude that in order to begin resolving the housing crisis in Australia’s two largest cities there has to be an increasing role for local government, a substantial increase in the building of social and affordable housing and a rollback of policies that encourage residential property speculation. JEL Codes: R31, R21For an increasing proportion of Australian households, the Australian dream of home ownership is no longer an option. Neoliberal housing policy and the financialisation of housing has resulted in a housing affordability crisis. Historically, Australian housing policy has afforded only a limited role to local government. This article analyses the results of a nation-wide survey of Australian local governments’ perceptions of housing affordability in their local government area, the possibilities for their meaningful intervention, the challenges they face, the role of councillors and councils’ perceptions of what levels of government should take responsibility for housing. Almost all of the respondents from Sydney and Melbourn2 The Economic and Labour Relations Review 00(0)e councils were clear that there is a housing affordability crisis in their local government area. We apply a framework analysing housing policy in the context of neoliberalism and the related financialisation of housing in order to analyse the housing affordability crisis in Sydney and Melbourne. We conclude that in order to begin resolving the housing crisis in Australia’s two largest cities there has to bean increasing role for local government, a substantial increase in the building of social and affordable housing and a rollback of policies that encourage residential property speculation. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Agency-based approaches represent a fundamental advance in how researchers and policymakers can address questions of place-based industrial strategy, including issues of governance, leadership, new technology and regional assets. However, these approaches can be advanced further by recognizing the centrality of discourse in regional change. This paper does this by synthesizing two conceptual frameworks: Grillitsch and Sotarauta’s trinity of change agency and Moulaert et al.’s framework of Agency Structure Institutions Discourse (ASID). Deploying two Australian case studies to shed light on drivers of change at the local scale, this paper demonstrates that discourse is a necessary component of transformative regional processes. Furthermore, it contends that successful transformation is presupposed by the extent to which local discourse overlaps with local opportunity spaces and forms of agency. Successful place-based industrial strategies need to mobilize these multiple elements of regional change in order to maximize their potential for success Refereed/Peer-reviewed

This paper examines the role of local government in the provision of housing across advanced economies in the contemporary economy and historically, while seeking to locate the Australian experience in a broader international perspective. It argues that while the details of recent developments in Australian local government are unique, in broader terms they are in line with wider shifts observable across nations. The paper finds that while there is a high degree of path dependency in the ways in which local governments engage with housing market processes, ongoing housing affordability challenges have given rise to policy innovation and new programmatic perspective. These developments have reflected non-systematic, and often disruptive, change rather than the continuation of predictable trends. The paper argues such evolution will continue into the future and will be more likely to deliver benefits to the local government sector and housing affordability if acknowledged and enabled by more senior tiers of government.

This report presents the results of an online survey of local governments across Australia on their attitudes, programs, policies and actions with respect to housing. It focuses on the data from respondents in the Sydney Metropolitan areas with 17 Councils in Sydney responded to the survey. Overall, 213 local governments in Australia completed the survey – representing about 40 per cent of all local governments.

Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Private Rental Brokerage Programs (PRBPs) are a seemingly well-used and reasonably well-known housing assistance measure in the housing and homelessness sectors. The existence of such programs — which pull together a range of key financial and non-financial supports for eligible private renters to assist them with access to, and the sustainability of,private renting — is especially important at the current time given well documented supply pressures atthe lower end of the private rental market, more people renting for longer periods generally and ever lengthening waiting lists for social housing. Despite all of this the role of PRBPs as an assistance measure supporting some of the most vulnerable people in the community has been almost completely overlooked, particularly in the academic literatures around housing.The fact that there is no clear definition of PRBPs or consideration of what such programs look like and no uniform reporting frameworks around what they do and the outcomes they provide for those assisted has added to our lack of information about them.Accordingly, understandings of what‘brokerage’ assistance means for private renters varies considerably.

This report is an initial outcome from research into the social and economic structure of the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia. The study sets out to establish a baseline of data, against which future developments and change can be assessed. The overarching goals of the project are to:1. Provide a description of the region’s social structure and the processes currently driving change.2. Identify community perceptions with respect to the potential impact of BP’s activities on the region, including the potential for onshore developments.3. Develop an understanding of the region’s capabilities and capacity, to take advantage of future developments.This report provides a first analysis of these issues and will be complemented by the discussion of qualitative and quantitative primary data in subsequent reports.

Over the period 2008 to the end of 2012 the South Australian housing market was dominated by external processes economically, politically and demographically. Housing in South Australia has always been subject to influences from outside the state’s borders, but from 2008 to late 2012 national and international processes imposed themselves on the housing system in new and unexpected ways. In many areas, there was a breaking of long term trends as these external factors set the South Australian housing market upon a new course. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

This document sets out to highlight some of the innovative practices being developed across Australia in response to homelessness. The paper draws upon some of the new ways of thinking encountered by researchers at the Centre for Housing, Urban and Regional Planning in their work on homelessness.The diversity of approaches evident in this document reflects a new commitment to change within the homelessness sector.The case studies covered here come from virtually all parts of the nation and reflect the diverse ways homelessness is experienced – by Indigenous Australians, the long term homeless, humanitarian arrivals, women and families.