May saw the Federal Budget handed down which, while including some worthwhile social and affordable housing supply measures, lacked the bold and ambitious housing reform that we know is required.

Since coming to office, the Commonwealth government has made significant investments to address the housing crisis. These include the funding of more social and affordable housing and the recent budget commitment to train more construction workers and enable infrastructure. A further increase to Commonwealth Rent Assistance was a critically important funding announcement to support renters struggling to survive in the private rental market. However, we still need to see a more meaningful response to entrenched poverty and cost-of-living improvements for low-income households. With inflation stubbornly high and unemployment creeping steadily upwards the plight of very-low income people seems even more precarious.