Govts do nothing

IT is profoundly disappointing to read about the Geelong region’s rental affordability crisis (GA, 25/10) given the numerous submissions that were made by me and my fellow development industry colleagues to our so-called regional political leadership back in 2017 and 2018 – that is, over four years ago.

In my personal submissions following my role as chair of the UDIA’s Geelong chapter, I could not have expressed more strongly my concern that the CoGG reported land supply numbers at that time were fundamentally wrong and that the Geelong region would face adverse land supply and affordability conditions unless new supply was brought to market urgently.

Moreover, I pressed that the council, with state government support, needed to initiate some form of regional emergency housing body to bring that land to market as quickly as possible.

What did the council and the state government do? In my view, a big fat nothing other than fiddle at the edges and focus their efforts on the northern and western growth areas, which will not bring on new supply until 2025 (at best), and, even then, not in areas where most people want to live and where there is existing infrastructure support.

As I have maintained for some time, in my view the City of Greater Geelong and the state government’s conduct in this respect is a dereliction of duty with profound consequences for our community, most particularly our children.

You can’t keep talking about the problem, you have to actually do something about it.

Tom Roe, Barwon Heads