Opinion Designer and academic. May 5, 2026 — 3:30pm With political attention finally on the housing crisis, there are many schemes aimed at making housing more available and addressing supply issues. But the current solutions are largely predicated on providing more dwellings using our existing rather slow and expensive methods. Increasing housing supply is only one part of the equation. Eamon Gallagher There are a number of policy changes that could make it easier for people to access homes – for example, much-needed tax reform could help to re-set the housing landscape to “housing as shelter” instead of “housing as investment”. But what can we do right now to get more people more access to home ownership before 2030? We need to look outside “business as usual” to find more effective solutions. The post-disaster landscape of the Northern Rivers has proved fertile ground for the exploration of alternative strategies.…