ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the role of planning and its capacity to ameliorate Australia’s housing affordability crisis. It begins by setting out the influence of neoliberal ideology on policymaking and the persistence of housing affordability problems for those on low-incomes. The next section, using the examples of New South Wales and Tasmania, considers the capacity of planning instruments to address housing affordability challenges. It is suggested that planning’s efficacy is under sustained attack from industry lobbyists who seek to recast the planning function of state and territory governments so that they align more with their members’ commercial interests. The conclusion charts some of the obstacles that impede major policy reform and how these might be overcome.
