News

Reforming metropolitan governance in Australian cities is essential to effectively addressing pressing urban issues such as action on climate change, coordinating population and urban development growth, and minimising spatial inequities and suburban sprawl, new AHURI research has revealed.

The Victorian Government has released the Final Report of the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System. The Report covers many aspects of how people experiencing mental health issues interact with government and community across Victoria and supports 65 formal recommendations, including having safe, supportive and affordable housing as an important part of the solution.

Using a newly available and extremely large Government dataset, researchers have revealed that demand for Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA) is far higher than commonly understood, with nearly 2 million households receiving CRA during 2016 rather than the 1.3 million households previously quoted by Government agencies.

As part of the 2020 State Budget, the Victorian Government has announced a large spending commitment of $5.3 billion to build new social housing. The program, called the Big Housing Build (BHB), will construct 12,000 new homes across metropolitan and regional Victoria over a four period, comprising 9,300 social housing homes and 2,900 new affordable and low-cost homes built to help low-to-moderate income earners.

The NSW Government has released a proposal that would give property buyers the choice to either pay a large upfront cost of stamp duty (and ongoing land tax if applicable) or to pay a much smaller annual property tax.