Acting Minister for Housing Roger Jaensch’s attempts to spin new housing data as a positive is a slap in the face to Tasmanians stuck on the record-long housing waitlist.
The Minister’s cherry-picked statistics from the Productivity Commission’s Report on Government Services data will provide little comfort to the 4,701 families waiting for a home.
For example, the data shows the top 50th percentile of new households on the waiting list in the greatest need waited 21 months to be housed. This is up from 15 months last year and is the longest in the country outside NT.
We know that after 10 years of a Liberal government, Tasmania’s housing waitlist is longer than ever at 4,701 applications.
The average time to house priority applicants in November rose to an absolutely staggering 94.7 weeks, which is far too long for a family that desperately needs housing to wait.
A Labor government would make providing the housing Tasmanians need a priority.
Under our Build to Rent program, Tasmania would see an increase of at least 1,000 additional private rental homes enter the market within the first five years and stay in the private rental market for 30 years.
A State Labor Government will also expand the MyHome scheme and get more people into home ownership, driving the market for more new houses.
These initiatives would be delivered on top of the 10,000 social and government homes committed to by the government before 2032.
After 10 years of a Liberal government, Tasmania’s housing waitlist is the longest it’s ever been. If they haven’t addressed the major housing issues by now, they never will.