The housing crisis, the people’s jury and having your say

The housing crisis is hitting people hard across the country, including here on the Northern Beaches. House prices have skyrocketed, and rents have hit unheard-of highs.

I am regularly approached by constituents who are finding it difficult to find a place to rent, or who say they worry how their children will afford to buy a home anywhere near where they grew up in our beautiful Northern Beaches. 

Recently, at a meeting with local principals I heard about how the lack of affordable housing makes it harder to recruit teachers to work on the Beaches. Several teachers even commute from the Central Coast each day. It’s the same for many of our key workers at Northern Beaches Hospital and in the NSW Police.

A Corelogic survey, published in March, put the median price of housing in the Northern Beaches at $2,050,000. The Northern Beaches also has some of the highest rents in Sydney. But how to fix the problem of unaffordable housing?

There’s no simple fix, but I believe the people of Mackellar and the Northern Beaches will
have their own unique set of solutions and ideas. It’s clearly not a matter of rezoning land around railway stations, as we don’t have any. Our public transport is limited, and many people already depend on cars.

We have areas that could be opened up, but they are often in sensitive bushland, while other areas are low lying and face threats of flooding or erosion, particularly as climate change takes hold.

The Northern Beaches Council has developed its 2040 Housing Strategy for additional homes including a new town centre at Frenchs Forest, adjacent to the Northern Beaches Hospital, which will deliver a significant boost. But more policy responses are needed. That’s why in June I’ll be holding “a people’s jury” on the housing crisis in our area. I want to hear from our community about how to alleviate this problem for Mackellar.

In seeking the views of the community, I will use a process called “deliberative democracy”, which is being used increasingly in Europe for difficult-to-solve issues. With the assistance of not-for profit organisation, New Democracy, we will convene “a people’s jury” of 30 people who will be representative of our community. They will work with experts to come up with ideas to address the housing crisis.

Over coming weeks my office will be inviting volunteers to take part in a one-day event. From this pool we will use demographers to match the jury with the population make-up of Mackellar. Even if you’re not chosen for the jury, there will be an opportunity to participate via a survey and we’ll also livestream and record the expert presentations. I urge you to submit your views so they can inform my actions on housing.

Many aspects of housing policy fall to state and local governments but there is a role for the federal government both in leadership and policy. As your local federal member, I want to really listen to the community’s ideas on how the Northern Beaches’ Mackellar community should tackle this problem. 

I know the people on the Northern Beaches have a broad range of experience and we have some of the most creative minds in the country here. So, I hope you will help me come up with focussed policy solutions that I can take to Canberra. I’ll be sharing the outcome of the deliberations with the entire community in the second half of the year.