NSW Labor had a chance to address the housing crisis in its June 23 budget, but it barely included a mention.
Isaac Nellist, Socialist Alliance candidate for Balmain in the March 2027 elections, told Green Left that Labor’s idea of a housing “fix” is to subsidise prefabrication and modular construction factories.
“Public housing could solve the housing affordability crisis. Not only would it provide homes to those who need them — the public housing waiting list is currently at 69,000 households — it would have a deflationary impact on house prices and rents.”
Nellist said cutting “red tape” and speeding up planning approvals using artificial intelligence tools, would likely come at the expense of real jobs and is not the solution. He said Labor has a bad record of removing community consultation from planning.
“Labor claims its new speedy planning approvals and fast-tracking of construction will address the housing affordability crisis. It won’t. It will simply continue the unjust housing distribution system, whereby wealthy investors and mega-landlords are legally able to hoard enormous property portfolios, thereby driving up housing costs.
Nellist has been part of the community campaign to stop the destruction of public housing at Waterloo Estate, in inner Sydney.
“Labor touts its ‘innovative’ new housing construction facility, yet is happy to demolish perfectly good housing at Waterloo, at the behest of developers.
“Similarly at Bays West, Labor wants to privatise public land. Lend Lease has put in an unsolicited proposal, and we can be sure that unless there is a fightback, that parcel will simply be handed to developers to make mega profits.”
Public housing has fallen from around 16% of total housing in the 1960s to less than 4% today.
Nellist said Labor could have allocated serious funds to public housing construction, including setting up a publicly-owned and -operated housing facility, employing public servants to mass produce high-quality housing on a large scale. He said a 10-year freeze on rents would also make a dramatic difference to those who will never be able to afford a deposit.
Labor announced a new Transport Affordability Package, which includes cutting private vehicle registration costs by $100 and capping tolls at $50 a week (down from $60). It claims this will address rising fuel costs driven by the United States-Israel war on Iran.
Andrew Chuter, Socialist Alliance NSW Legislative Council candidate, said public and active transport should have been boosted instead.
“NSW Labor could have chosen to follow other states and offer free public transport, or 50 cent public transport fares, in response to rising fuel prices. Capping tolls just means greater subsidies go to private toll road operator Transurban.”
He said free, accessible and frequent public transport would not only help working people, it would help the planet. “The budget also missed out on expanding bus services and bringing privatised bus services back into public hands.”
NSW Greens spokesperson Abigail Boyd criticised Labor’s spending priorities, saying that while millions of people are sinking into poverty in the last few years, Labor is not rising to the challenge.
“We’re in the midst of one of the most profound crises affecting household finances in generations, compounding inequality and hardship right across our communities. The latest National Council of Social Service data shows that 1 in 3 households in poverty have been pushed into poverty only in the past few years.”
She asked why Minns and Treasurer Daniel Mookhey signed off on more than $1 billion in tax exemptions “for pokies, tax cuts for foreign commercial landlords and property developers, and hundreds of millions in tax breaks for private schools with palatial grounds”.
The Greens called on Labor to have “the courage to raise revenue from those who ought to be paying a fair share — the fossil fuel industry, gambling companies, big banks and the very wealthy — to provide a better life for the people of New South Wales”.