Rudd’s own goal on homelessness
Nothing better illustrates the Rudd Government’s schizophrenic approach to policy making than the two planks of this week’s housing/homelessness announcement.
On the one hand, Rudd wants to reduce homelessness by throwing $1.2 billion at it and setting another of his meaningless 2020 targets.
But on the other hand, Rudd announces a policy which could actually make things worse for the homeless.
“The Government will review the impact of without-grounds termination clauses on homelessness in state legislation and the lack of legislative protection for boarders and lodgers.”
That is not a policy which will help reduce homelessness. It may well make the problem worse.
If a landlord knows that it has just become much harder for him to evict a tenant or lodger, he or she will be much more judicious when it comes to letting that person into their home in the first place.
And tenants and lodgers at the margins of society, the very people who become homeless, are likely to be the first people to suffer from this foolish policy. A landlord is likely to lose any charitable intent if they know they can’t get rid of someone when they need to.
It is the same with unfair dismissal laws. They won’t reduce unemployment, they’ll increase it.
Any employer who knows it has just become harder for to sack a bad worker will be less likely to hire in the first place.
When it comes to policy-making, Rudd is all over the place.
