The latest social housing - in Hami Hill. And the economy.

The Treasurer Jim Chalmers, the Minister for Housing and Homelessness Clare O’Neil, the Minister for Finance, Women and the Public Service Katy Gallagher and the WA Minister for Housing John Carey were in Hamilton Hill, near Fremantle, late morning today, Monday 2 September, to unveil the latest social housing project ‘delivered by the partnership of the Albanese and Cook Governments’, as the media release from the two Governments advising of the presser put it.

Not that you’d have known the occasion was one to celebrate the latest social housing in the Freo area once the Treasurer spoke and the travelling, national media started firing their questions at him.

What we quickly learned from the Treasurer was that, this Wednesday, the national accounts data will confirm the national economy is ‘soft and subdued’ and ‘sticky and stubborn’. (Love economists’ lingo!)

And that he’s not at war with the Reserve Bank of Australia; rather the Government’s and the Reserve Bank’s interests are ‘aligned’, but they have ‘different responsibilities’.

We also learned from the Treasurer that WA is ‘the hope of the side’ when it comes to the state of the national economy.

And all eyes are on the cost of living.

It took a question from this masthead to Minister Carey to momentarily return focus of the presser to the subject of the social housing just unveiled before us. The Minister confirmed it comprises 12 small houses, which the Minister expects will be occupied by single member families or families comprising a parent with a child. So somewhere between 12 and 24 people might be housed in this new Hami Hill development. A small but important step in producing more social housing around Freo, the metro area, the State and, indeed, the nation.

Before all that happened, the pollies met some of the young folk who had worked on the construction of the social housing project and were taken on a tour of one of the new homes.

As a very occasional observer of these sorts of pressers, I have to say all 4 speakers, introduced by local Freo Federal MP Josh Wilson, and him too, are amazing public speakers. Take my hat off to them. Fluent. Natural. Thoughtful. All done without a note or a teleprompter!

A final note, plainly the efforts of the Commonwealth and the States to try to respond jointly and meaningfully to the housing availability and affordability crisis around the country are real, though equally plainly the challenge is enormous.

Oh, final, final note – between now and the Federal election expect to hear one phrase, and one phrase alone, repeated endlessly: ‘The cost of living’.

By Michael Barker, Editor, Fremantle Shipping News

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