CHIA has started work on what we want to see in the 2018 Federal Budget to improve housing affordability and we want your ideas. However, time is short, so you’ll need to get them to us fast!

In an unusually early start to the Budget process this year, the Treasurer has asked for Budget submissions to be lodged by mid-December.  This means we will need to get your policy proposals by December 1, 2017, so we can finalise our submission by the deadline.

If you have ideas to improve housing affordability for renters or for home buyers, ideas to increase housing supply, or ideas to help people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, then we want to hear them.

We are particularly interested in your proposals for reforming taxes – not just the well-rehearsed suggestions like changes to negative gearing and the Capital Gains Tax, but ideas for the other quirky bits of the tax system that make it difficult to do business, create inconsistent outcomes, or could create big opportunities for change.  (For example: enabling developers to claim gift deductibility on their tax if they donate housing stock to charities could encourage developers to increase the amount of affordable housing in developments. Currently, donated stock can’t be regarded as a gift if it has been transferred as a condition of a planning permit that requires the provision of affordable housing.)

So send us your ideas – anything from a couple of sentences to a page is fine. Here are a few questions that will help us pull all the ideas together: What is the problem that needs to be fixed? What are good arguments in support of this proposal? Will it benefit any particular group (for example, older renters, people living in regional areas, Indigenous Australians, first home buyers)? Would it affect many people? How much is it likely to cost or save?  Is the wider community likely to support or oppose it?

Email your ideas through to [email protected]