Like the ‘broken’ housing market, Labor has a moral obligation to act on another issue

July 6, 2026 — 3:00am

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In recent weeks, one of the prime minister’s most consistent talking points has been the fact the housing market is “broken”. Not just that: the fact everybody knows it’s broken. Nobody, he repeatedly says, tries to make the argument that it was working well. Which then leads to his fourth point: Labor had a moral obligation to act.

“We know there’s been a 400 per cent increase in house prices since 1999, more than double the increase in wages. And that’s why we couldn’t continue to sit back and not pursue this reform”, he told the ABC. To the Seven Network, he said: “If everyone’s identified the problem and it’s agreed the system is broken, then you can’t just sit back and not do anything about it.” To Nine: “We had a responsibility, given that had been identified across the board, to do something about it.”

On the weekend, speaking at the NSW Labor conference, he said it again: “Once everyone acknowledges that the system is broken, then the choice for a party of government is very clear.”

He’s right, of course. And early signs are that he is right about the politics, too. Since the budget, I’ve suggested in this column that – despite much commentary – the polling has not been so bad for Labor. Also, that it was too early to tell what was happening because in these days of a fragmented media landscape, news can take a while to land with voters.

Last week, a set of polls suggested that One Nation’s vote had........

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