Australia is now confronting a housing shortage that has moved well beyond a social policy concern. It has become a drag on national productivity, a handbrake on business growth, and a threat to the functioning of local economies across the country.

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The latest Rental Affordability Index, produced by National Shelter, SGS Economics and Planning and Housing All Australians, paints a clear picture of how deeply this crisis has spread. In almost every city and regional centre, the workers Australians rely on every day - the people who staff cafes, support school classrooms, care for older people and keep early learning centres running - are being priced out of the communities they serve.

In the ACT, a couple earning the minimum wage must spend about 31 per cent of their income just to keep a roof over their head. That places them squarely in housing stress. For hospitality workers, the picture is even starker, with rents swallowing 38 per cent of their pay. Similar pressures are felt outside the national capital. In Sydney's hospitality sector, average rents consume 42 per cent of income, while minimum-wage earners in Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Sydney all face rent burdens between 32 per cent and 38 per cent.

When essential workers cannot afford to live locally, they pay the price through long commutes, fatigue and reduced productivity. Businesses pay too. Across the country, retailers, restaurants, health providers and service businesses are shortening trading hours, or contemplating relocation or closure because they can't find staff. A major reason for this is that employees simply cannot find somewhere affordable to live........

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