Reason housing crisis could get worse
The report by the Housing, Homelessness, and Disasters National Symposium last week found 1153 homes were left uninhabitable by the floods. Another 1831 homes were damaged.
Some 23,000 Australians are displaced by floods, bushfires, and cyclones each year, with the report finding 5.6 million homes are at risk from bushfires as climate impacts accelerate.
Homeless Australia CEO Kate Colvin said as climate disasters become more regular, there was a risk of a 'two-tiered society' in which housing security determined disaster survival.
'There is a gap between people who are best able to protect themselves and people who are least able to,' she said.
Ms Colvin said renters were often limited to cheaper properties in more flood-prone areas and were less resilient to climate-related disasters, compared with higher-income earners.
Renters also often had less access to government support and faced a 'superheated' rental market. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Taree following the 2025 floods. Dean Lewins/POOL/ NewsWire Credit: News Corp Australia
'They can't compete because all those people who had insurance often also get a special payments system to afford rent during the time when their home is not available,' Ms Colvin said.
'They then can't get a rental because you've got this superheated market, so you have another wave of homelessness just because of the housing market impact'.
Ms Colvin called on the federal government to make renters or people facing homelessness a priority in future disaster responses, and include disaster resilience in its 10-year housing plan.
'In the planning phase, include the homelessness sector, include strategies around housing resilience … (and) in the response phase, be inclusive of people who are facing homelessness.'
The symposium brought together more than 100 professionals across the housing, emergency management, and governmental sectors to examine how 'secondary crises' affect NSW.
Factors included the prevalence of construction workers who flood disaster zones in the wake of climate events, inadvertently driving up rents for already struggling locals.
The symposium found that in Australia, some 953,000 homes were vulnerable to flooding and 17,500 were at threat from coastal erosion, with 169,000 people on the public housing list.
HowWeSurvive UNSW Sydney academic and co-author of the symposium report, Dr Timothy Heffernan, said climate disasters were already hitting 'housing-vulnerable' communities. At least 1153 homes were left uninhabitable by the floods on the Mid North Coast. NewsWire / Glenn Campbell Credit: News Corp Australia
'When you have 6.5 million homes at risk from bushfires, floods or coastal erosion, and a housing system that can't meet demand, every disaster becomes a humanitarian crisis,' he said.
'Hotels and motels fill up immediately, caravan parks are often in flood-prone areas … We're asking an already strained system to absorb sudden surges of thousands of displaced people.'
Social Futures general manager Martelle Geurts said the Northern Rivers housing system was 'already fragile' when it was hit by the 2022 flood disaster, damaging more than 10,000 homes.
Despite extensive recovery efforts, the Northern Rivers accounted for about a third of rough sleepers in NSW in 2025.
The most recent NSW Street Count - an annual audit of people facing homelessness - found 346 people sleeping rough in the City of Sydney. In the Northern Rivers, there were 654 people.
'Climate events are becoming more frequent and severe, and they destroy homes. So, climate change and homelessness are inextricably linked,' Ms Geurts said.
'People can't recover without stable housing.
'Disasters displace people and can cause lasting trauma. Some people experience PTSD, and the impact of that can be lifelong.
'What we know is that people can't recover psychologically unless they have a secure place to live.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
West Australian
3 hours ago
- West Australian
Melissa Price: PM must be clear-eyed to security threat posed by China
The first duty of the Australian Government is to keep Australians safe and the nation secure. This duty intensifies when the Government declares that Australia is confronting its most complex strategic environment in 80 years. In large part this is because of the rapid expansion of China's People's Liberation Army, which our Minister for Defence has described as the biggest increase in military capability and build-up in a conventional sense by any country since World War II. At such a time, you would rightly expect the Government to not just be talking about the threat, but to be working to make us as strong as possible, as fast as possible. Regrettably, that is not what our Government is doing. The Prime Minister has not budged on defence spending which not only limits our own strategic capability, but has the secondary effect of undermining the backbone of our security policy — our alliance with the United States. The US has served as the guarantor of regional stability since WWII. This role hasn't been limited to our region, and it has been costly for the US taxpayer. The US is currently US$37 trillion in debt and the conflicts in Europe and the Middle East have many Americans asking why America's allies aren't bearing more of the cost burden to guarantee their own defence. This push from the Americans culminated in NATO countries last month committing to lift core defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP and a further 1.5 per cent of GDP on broader defence and security related investments by 2035. The Trump administration has called on Australia to increase our own defence spending and is currently reviewing the AUKUS agreement. I'm a believer in AUKUS and proud to have been part of the team as minister for defence industry who secured it. Obtaining nuclear submarines will serve as a significant deterrent to future attacks on Australia. To ensure the continuation of this agreement, it is imperative we demonstrate that we are a credible ally. This means investing enough to operate and maintain these submarines, while not skimping out on other defence priorities. The Coalition took to the last election a policy to increase defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP over the next 10 years and we are prepared to work in a bipartisan manner with the Government to deliver increased investment. Like NATO we should also strengthen our sovereign industrial base and commit to greater funding to protect our critical infrastructure against attacks including cyber. As shadow minister for cyber security, I understand that cyber security is national security. As the Government's last annual cyber threat report outlined, state-sponsored cyber operations are an ongoing concern. These actors are engaged in intelligence gathering, interference, coercion and are working to gain a foothold within critical networks. Should the strategic environment deteriorate significantly, Australia could face major and disruptive cyber attacks. This is an awkward fact for the Prime Minister to navigate with him last week in China. While they are our major trading partner, they are also the source of our consternation. This was an important trip for the Australia-China relationship, but it could also send the wrong message to our US allies. The Prime Minister should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. He should advocate for continued trade with China, which is vital for our economic prosperity, particularly here in WA, but he must be clear-eyed about our national security and call out unacceptable behaviour. Reiterating where we stand will send an important message to the US as AUKUS remains under review. This is assuming the Prime Minister's failure to meet with President Trump since the November election, his bizarre John Curtin Oration, and his resistance to increase defence spending haven't spoiled the deal already. If not, there is still a lot of work to be done. While we may not get our first submarines until the early 2030s, US and UK submarines are set to begin rotating through HMAS Stirling in 2027. Our readiness to host these submarines will be an early test and critical in signalling our commitment to AUKUS. State and Federal Labor need to put their shoulder to the wheel to get that part of AUKUS right, otherwise we can almost kiss goodbye having our own fleet of nuclear submarines. Australia is at a crossroads. It is past time the Prime Minister gets serious. Melissa Price is the Member for Durack
Sky News AU
8 hours ago
- Sky News AU
Labor to act on key cost-of-living promises in first week of parliament
Australians are weeks away from receiving a 20 per cent cut to their student debt, with Labor vowing to scrap HECS and HELP debt as the government's first priority once parliament resumes, following the government's landslide election victory. The changes will be applied to all student debts as they on June 1, 2025, with the average HELP debt of $27,600 set to receive a reduction of about $5520. The HECS reform will also reduce the repayment threshold for debts from $56,156 to $67,000. Rates of repayments will also be lowered then current levels, with someone on $70,000 paying $1300. Despite the Coalition not supporting the measure during the campaign, education spokesman Jonno Duniam said he expected the Bill to 'pass' parliament. Speaking to the ABC on Sunday, he said that while the legislation would still need to go through party room and shadow cabinet, he believed 'the Australian people spoke pretty clearly … around the policies the Labor Party took,' adding the party was 'not really in the business of standing in the way of cost of living relief'. Labor will also seek to introduce its cost-of-living election promises, including the $150 energy rebate top up, the 30 per cent discount on home batteries, paid prac measures for student nurses, teachers, social workers and midwives, plus a $10,000 cash bonus for trainee builders who finish their construction apprenticeship. It will also begin work on legislating a two-week increase for Government Paid Parental Leave and laws to add superannuation on government paid parental leave, while also increasing the Super Guarantee to 12 per cent. Education Minister Jason Clare will also use the first sitting week to introduce Bills to tighten protection settings in childcare centres, including provision to allow anti-fraud officers to inspect centres with a warrant or police supervision. The Coalition has also said it's open to working with the government to get the Commonwealth to pull funding on centres which fail to meet safety standards after a Victorian former childcare worker Joshua Brown was hit with more than 70 child abuse charges. While Labor holds a thumping 94-seat majority, out of a total 150 seats, in the Lower House, the government will still need to negotiate with either the Greens (which hold 10 seats), the Coalition's 27 senators, or the 10-member crossbench. After an election bloodbath, the Coalition will return with a significantly reduced 43 seats, while the Greens have been reduced to a single seat. Ahead of the official opening of the 48th parliament, Sussan Ley warned that while the Coalition would 'provide a constructive path for any legislation that makes Australia stronger,' it's 'good will is not a blank cheque'. As it stands, the opposition has already vowed to fight Labor's proposed superannuation tax on balances over $3m, with the Coalition also set to eye accidentally released treasury advice to Jim Chalmers which urged him to consider new taxes to increase the budget outlook. 'Anthony Albanese is yet to explain why his departmental officials secretly advised the Treasurer that Labor would need to raise taxes on Australians,' the Opposition Leader said. 'We will seek answers on behalf of Australian taxpayers, not one of whom should face a new tax that they didn't vote for.' It will also continue to attack Labor over its handling of Australia-US relations, following further fallout from Donald Trump's tariff trade war, with Anthony Albanese yet to secure a meeting with the US President. Originally published as Labor to act on key cost-of-living promises like 20pc HELP debt wipe-out, paid prac, $150 energy rebate
Perth Now
9 hours ago
- Perth Now
Shape or be shaped: What's driving Albo's agenda
How successful Australia is this century hinges on what happens in the country over the next decade, Anthony Albanese has told NewsWire in an exclusive interview. Lounging in the conference room of a Royal Australian Air Force Airbus, donning a grey Joy Division T-shirt, the Prime Minister was noticeably relaxed as he and his China delegation jetted home toward Canberra. It was a tough trip to China. He carried the interests of Australia's business community, iron ore giants, tourism sector and researchers while navigating a delicate diplomatic relationship with Xi Jinping – a mission overshadowed hawkish hints out of the White House. At home, the opposition was quick to criticise him for not producing anything tangible, despite several agreements signed while there and $20bn in trade barriers removed over the past year. 'I think it's disappointing that they've broken with what is normal protocol, and been critical of this visit with our major trading partner,' Mr Albanese said. 'It shows that they haven't really changed their position or their attitude towards China, and that's disappointing.' Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says what happens this decade will determine Australia's success later in the century. Martin Ollman / NewsWire Credit: News Corp Australia 'I think it's disappointing that they've broken with what is normal protocol, and been critical of this visit with our major trading partner,' Mr Albanese said. 'It shows that they haven't really changed their position or their attitude towards China, and that's disappointing.' In an increasingly uncertain world, he sees China and its exploding middle class as key to Australia's economic future. The relentless march of China's economic growth is undeniable. In Shanghai, one of the three cities Mr Albanese visited, the growth is exemplified by the transformation of the metropolis' centre. Where rice paddies once dotted the area when he visited some 30 years ago now stands towering skyscrapers draped in neon. Meanwhile, the city's 25 million or so inhabitants get around in state-of-the-art electric vehicles. With China leading a middle class boom in Asia, Mr Albanese said his government's focus was on implementing 'long term changes that Australia needs' to not only survive, but to thrive. 'The world is changing fast, and you can either shape that change, or it will shape you,' he said. 'And we've just been to a part of the world, in China, that's obviously changed very quickly over recent decades. 'And so there's a link – one of the reasons why that was an important visit is that the connections in our trade and economic relationships have a real difference for jobs and the economy. 'In Australia, one in four of our jobs is trade-dependent.' President Xi Jinping did not raise the Port of Darwin during the meeting with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Prime Minister's Office / Handout / NewsWire Credit: NewsWire Prime Minister Anthony Albanese did raise Taiwan during the meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Prime Minister's Office / Handout / NewsWire Credit: NewsWire 'The world is changing fast, and you can either shape that change, or it will shape you,' he said. 'And we've just been to a part of the world, in China, that's obviously changed very quickly over recent decades. 'And so there's a link – one of the reasons why that was an important visit is that the connections in our trade and economic relationships have a real difference for jobs and the economy. 'In Australia, one in four of our jobs is trade-dependent.' Mr Albanese said his domestic agenda and international agenda worked hand-in-hand, and with 94 lower house seats following the May election, he is in a strong position to power on with both. Among the big ticket items for the first sitting fortnight are slashing student debt by 20 per cent and legislating penalty rates. Longer term items include speeding up the renewables transition, building 1.2m homes and making more things in Australia and keeping it sustainable. 'I feel a sense of responsibility,' Mr Albanese said. 'I really believe this decade will determine how successful Australia is for the decades to come, because this is … the transition to net zero is critical. 'The transition nature of the workforce changes. 'They're dealing with artificial intelligence and new technologies that will have an impact on the nature of work, all of these things. 'And I think it is more difficult than it was for previous generations.' He added that while he was able to get a 'secure job' after finishing high school, now people 'work in multiple jobs'. 'It's a different world,' he said. Both Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Chinese President Xi Jinping were keen to reframe the Australia-China relationship. Prime Minister's Office / Handout / NewsWire Credit: NewsWire During his trip, Mr Albanese was keen to reframe the Australia-China relationship from its increasingly militaristic nature to more friendlier terms. It was a message that went down well in Beijing, if Chinese state media is a measure. Whether it went down well in Washington is another matter. Though, Mr Albanese made clear throughout his diplomatic and business blitz that chasmic differences remained between Australia and China. Any suggestion that Australia was realigning itself geopolitically was firmly met with his mantra: 'We will agree where we can, disagree where we must, and engage in the national interest.' But Mr Albanese also made clear he would not allow White House hawks determine Australia's economic future.
