Public housing and intergovernmental reform in the 1990s

The problem identified in this paper is twofold. One is the plight of publi c housing at the end of the decade, with State programs undermined by Commo nwealth funding cuts; the other is the problem of intergovernmental reform and its consequences for discrete areas of policy such as housing. The pape r traces developments in Commonwealth-State housing arrangements, beginning with the reforms initiated through the Council of Australian Governments t hrough to the still uncertain future of public housing under the Howard gov ernment. It examines a number of inquiries into housing and recommendations for reform which served the plans of reformist governments intent on separ ating out the functional roles and responsibilities of the Commonwealth and the States. In particular, these inquiries advocated an 'affordability' be nchmark which sought to blur the distinction between public and private ren tal housing leading, inevitably, to the residualisation of the public housi ng sector.