Housing is a human right and is the underlying key to solving most of our social issues. This issue is a high priority and will require a collaborative effort between all branches of government. As an active member of a homeless organisation, I have seen firsthand the devastating effects that being homeless has on people’s ability to participate in our community meaningfully. It’s time to have courage and compassion to solve this issue.

In Europe, we've seen the success of a 'housing first' solution. Housing is the basis for lowering crime rates and drug usage. If we want to be serious about tackling these issues, then we need to start viewing housing as a remedy rather than a reward. Increased social housing is what allows our society's most vulnerable and disadvantaged to better their lives and contribute meaningfully to the community.

Many options are at our immediate disposal to improve housing access for our community. These include incentives for empty nesters or elderly to down-size, more widely accessible first homeowner grants and government-shared ownership plans. We also need increased federal funding to enable infrastructure - such as sewerage and drainage - to allow us to unlock more land for housing.

Our electorate is seeing some of the worst housing availability in the country. For rural and regional communities such as ours, our lack of housing supply is preventing us from meeting the workplace and professional needs of our region. As your representative, it would be my priority to ensure we get the funding needed to improve housing stock and fix the many social issues that intersect with housing security.