Viv Forbes, “Government committee a sick joke,” The Australian Financial Review, January 3, 1986, p. 9, as a letter to the editor. A similar version appeared as Viv Forbes, “The sick joke of the year,” The Weekend Australian, February 15-16, 1986, p. 14, as a letter to the editor.

SIR, For the Government to set up a committee to plan the “Year of the Homeless” is surely a sick joke, (AFR, December 18). Government committees have probably created more homeless people in Australia than Cyclone Tracy and the Brisbane flood combined.

The problem starts at the land development stage, where the maze of regulations and the ponderous decision making process delays most developments for up to three years. For many projects, it can take longer to complete the paperwork and get the approvals than to do the job.

Then, when approvals are obtained, they specify standards that an increasing number of homeless Australians cannot afford. Moreover, the insistence by government committees on minimum sizes for housing blocks has forced urban sprawl and increased the cost of water, roads, sewerage, power, transport and land for all home-owners.

Should the poor home buyer get to the building stage and need finance, he finds that well has run dry. If he had the time to investigate the reason, he would find that other committees of bureaucrats had already seized the funds to build billion dollar parliament houses, huge “cultural” centres or ivory towers overseas for recipients of foreign aid.

Should he be so lucky as to get his house plans and his finance approved, he then is forced to use only the high-cost builders and lawyers who are licensed by the government. If he passes this hurdle he still has to find thousands of dollars in stamp duties for which no recognisable service is received.

And it is no use for our homeless regulation refugees to seek to rent a home. There are battalions of bureaucrats ensuring that few rental properties reach the market. The unfortunate landlord is hit with a bevy of taxes, rates, fees and inspectors and is also forced to contend with an avalanche of hostile legislation designed to “assist tenants”. Since when are tenants helped by harassing landlords out of business?

The biggest single cause of homelessness in Australia is political. Appointing another government committee is like trying to cure a sick man by giving him a more powerful dose of the same poison which made him sick in the first place.

The homeless of Australia know that more laws, more regulations and more taxes do not build more houses — they build fewer. Apart from ensuring a fair field and no favours, the housing regulators should stick to politics and let the creators and the builders get on with the job of housing the homeless.

VIV FORBES
President,
Tax Payers United,
Taringa, Queensland.