The rise of One Nation (ON) in the polls comes off the back of four decades of neoliberalism delivering declining wages, less union strength and a worsening housing crisis.

ON, with the help of the establishment media, has positioned itself as the alternative to the Liberal-Labor duopoly on housing, saying sharp cuts to immigration will solve the crisis. This is scapegoating, designed to ramp up racism when the cost of living crisis is adding to the ordinary people’s alienation with the major parties.

What would a durable response to the housing crisis involve?

It is well established that house prices and rents are out of control, having risen by substantially more than the rate of wage rises for more than a quarter century.

Negative gearing and the 50% capital gains tax discount, a Howard Coalition government “reform” in 2000 incentivised people on above average incomes, and especially the wealthiest 5-10%, to use property investment as a way of reducing the amount of tax they would otherwise have to pay.

However, arguably, an even bigger contribution to housing inaffordability has been the move away from state investment in public housing.

The state and federal government public housing funding arrangement from after World War II until the late 1980s led to the percentage of public housing steadily rising to a peak of around 5% of overall housing.

But successive state and federal governments from the 1990s have reduced the stock of public housing as a percentage of overall housing stock. This accelerated from 2000 onwards.

According to........

© Green Left Weekly