ADVANCING POVERTY IN AUSTRALIA: HOUSING, THE LAW AND THE DENIAL OF RIGHTS

Poverty is no longer measured in terms of income levels alone but takes into account a number of essential costs regularly incurred by Australians. High amongst these is housing costs, if people are in fact housed, and to understand why this is so requires a consideration of Australia’s regulatory failures in this policy space. Australia’s approach to housing has remained in the realm of policy and politics and where laws have been enacted they have been on an ad hoc basis, exhibiting a light touch regulation. These laws have tended to ignore Australia’s international rights obligations and allow the private market to dominate in almost all aspects of the housing sector. Australia’s institutional framework needs renovation if it is to recognise the interconnected nature of the housing market and adopt a more systemic regulatory approach that addresses the potential for many to slide into either ‘before’ or ‘after’ housing poverty. This paper argues that this renovation should be about looking beyond current administrative law and procedural remedies and reference Australia’s international obligations around the right to adequate housing. Ideally it should include a comprehensive federal bill of rights but, as a minimum, there need to be housing specific laws that focus on housing as shelter, rather as a tradeable commodity, address both affordability and security of tenure and, above all, treat people as rights-holders.