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You hear it so often when people talk about the lack of affordable housing around Australia. It’s simple, the argument goes, we should just stop taking migrants from overseas. That will take the heat out of the housing market.
Problem is, as Dorina Pojani and Aude Bernard remind us, Australia did shut off the flow of migrants during the pandemic. Unfortunately for those who believe in simple solutions, while the borders were closed from 2020 through to 2022, there was a record jump in home values.
Of course, the current temporarily high level of so-called “recuperation migration” will have short-term impacts on demand for housing. Even then it won’t quite make up for the loss of migrants when borders were closed. As bad as the housing crisis is, it’s not the only concern for Australia, which needs both the skills and the injection of youth that migrants provide for the nation’s ageing population. The future costs of closing the door on migrants would be very high.
What, then, can be done to make suitable affordable housing available to all Australians? The problem has been decades in the making, and the solution goes back to what Australia stopped doing some two decades ago: ensuring the supply of affordable housing kept up with population growth. Both governments and the private sector have failed to maintain the stock of affordable housing and now, as a country, we are doomed to play catch-up for years.
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John Watson
Cities Editor and Deputy Energy + Environment Editor
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Dorina Pojani, The University of Queensland; Aude Bernard, The University of Queensland
COVID-19 halted immigration and housing affordability got much worse. We’d feel the impacts of internal migration and undersupply of affordable housing even if we again blocked migrants from overseas.
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Peter Layton, Griffith University
54 people have died in crashes of the controversial ‘tiltrotor’ V-22 Osprey aircraft – but the military advantage it offers is too great to be discounted.
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Kate Highfield, Australian Catholic University; Victoria Minson, Australian Catholic University
Depending on your child’s birthday, you may have a tricky decision to make about when they start school.
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Stephen Bartos, University of Canberra
Central America is a long way from Australia but a drought in the region is having an impact on the availability and price of some products.
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Noel Morada, The University of Queensland
Given Australia has recently sought to steady its rocky relationship with China, this cooperation with the Philippines could come at a cost.
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Nicholas Khoo, University of Otago
With the rise of China and shifting international power dynamics, New Zealand needs to find its place in a complex system of alliances and partnerships.
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Michelle Arrow, Macquarie University
While it can’t hope to match the brilliance of the original, this reimagined Mother and Son offers a sympathetic, honest portrayal of ageing parents and their harried adult children
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Samuel Lymbery, Murdoch University; Bruce Webber, CSIRO; Raphael Didham, The University of Western Australia
Mathematical models, video games and experiments with ants can all further our understanding of the dynamics of war.
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Health + Medicine
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Paul B. Fitzgerald, Australian National University
What do we know so far about this promising form of treatment and how it might help people with a range of neurological conditions? And is it living up to its promise for people with depression?
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Andrew Whitehouse, The University of Western Australia
Developmental delay is viewed clinically as a temporary state where children are slower to develop than expected. It is most often used for children under five.
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Science + Technology
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Cameron Shackell, Queensland University of Technology
Media articles and influencers have helped give the impression that prompt engineering could be a ticket to a six-figure salary. The reality, as always, is a different story.
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Environment + Energy
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Noam Peleg, UNSW Sydney
The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has released a statement on the responsibilities of governments to reduce harm from climate change. Here’s what’s in it for Australia.
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Kate Dutton-Regester, The University of Queensland
Echidnas are seemingly everywhere in Australia, from the Red Centre to snowy mountains. And that’s just the start of what makes them interesting
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Education
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Stephen Agnew, University of Canterbury
Both major political parties have promised to introduce financial literacy to New Zealand’s curriculum. But is school really the best place to teach students about money?
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Books + Ideas
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Danica Jenkins, University of Sydney
The connection between periods of crisis and autocratic rule is deeply embedded in the Russian consciousness.
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Jessica Gildersleeve, University of Southern Queensland
Some fairy tales tell the brutal truth, others offer the hope of a happy ending. Immaculate raises the possibility of both.
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