Housing Crisis Addressed At Roundtable

Image1: Mackay Regional Council Deputy Mayor Karen May said there is no shortage of residential land in Mackay

When Regional Development Australia (RDA) Greater Whitsundays completed a regional strategy for economic development and growth earlier this year, housing or a lack thereof was a key issue identified.

This should come as no surprise, with housing becoming less affordable and accessible and reports of more and more people applying for social housing than ever before.

RDA partnered with Greater Whitsunday Communities (GWC) on Tuesday to host a Roundtable event, bringing stakeholders together to address the housing issues facing the Mackay, Isaac and Whitsundays regions.

Invited stakeholders included employers, developers, financiers, social and affordable housing not for profit organisations, local Regional Councils, realtors, economic development organisations, churches, a university, local government planners, the State government and Federal Members. RDA Greater Whitsundays CEO Robert Cocco said he’s confident that key issues and opportunities were identified by the people in the room.

“The anticipation moving forward is that we’ll continue to utilise their skills and knowledge and find and implement solutions not only in terms of the role of government but also the role of industry itself in terms of the housing sector,” he said.

“One of the fundamental messages from today is that we need more investors and more investment into the region to support more volume of dwelling and housing offerings.”

Mackay Regional Council Deputy Mayor and GWC Chair Karen May also encouraged investors to enter the private market.

“When you’ve got all those pillars of the economy firing, and we’ve got people that are able to afford to build houses and live in, and we’ve got investors that are cashed up and can afford to invest in properties go be able to rent them out, that’s what we want to see,” she said.

“We want to see that wholistic economy.

“We’ve got jobs available; we’ve got strong economic growth; we just need to put people into places to live to enable us to grow as a region.”

Ms May said there are council and state-owned blocks of land available to be built on.

“You still have to go through the development process, which is the planning application, the DA application, so even though there might’ve been places or blocks identified, there are still other processes to go through,” she said.

“In Mackay itself, there is no shortage of residential land … D.A. approved, ready to go, it’s available.”

The Roundtable was designed to help identify the key themes and areas stakeholders want to see addressed and is the first of three components, with an independent study and a summit in 2023 to follow.

“The summit is really the culmination of those two where, armed with that information, there’ll then be no doubt a set of recommendations but also broader discussion around those recommendations by stakeholders so we’ll have confidence that what is put forward will then be picked up and supported by the many good people that are here and some more at the summit,” said Mr Cocco.

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