Contributor @insidestorymag, author No Place Like Home: Repairing Australia's Housing Crisis.
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Articles by Peter Mares
The octopus and the elephant • Peter Mares
Former New York mayor Bill de Blasio says a city that lacks affordable housing will fail. And, he adds, “the private sector will never produce enough housing for working-class families on its own.” Addressing this month’s Melbourne Assembly, convened by the Age to discuss the city’s future, he declared: “Only with an aggressive public sector role can enough affordable housing be built and preserved.” De Blasio was echoing generations of thinkers.
Complex issues: how to get your apartment block off gas before it's too late
Peter Mares Around Australia, homes are getting off gas. Gas cooktops are being swapped for induction stoves , gas hot water replaced by heat pumps , and gas space heating with reverse cycle air conditioners In combination with solar panels, batteries and better insulation, electrification saves money, cuts emissions and makes homes healthier to live in Electrifying a freestanding house is often straightforward.
Complex issues: how to get your apartment block off gas – before it’s too late
Converting an apartment block from gas to electricity can save thousands of dollars – the key is finding consensus among owners. Photograph: Photon-Photos/Getty Images/iStockphoto Sign up to read this article Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you. Email is required Email is already registered. Please sign in instead. Start reading
Bottle that magic • Peter Mares
In 1925 government statistician Charles Wickens — himself the son of migrant parents — likened Australia’s approach to immigration to a boa constrictor and its food. “We are in the habit of bolting our immigrants,” he wrote, “and then resting until we have digested them.” A century later, is the boa constrictor entering a period of post-prandial repose or suffering heartburn? In the first quarter of the twenty-first century, Australia swallowed immigrants in large numbers.
Cooler roofs will prevail: colours and coatings to help beat the heat
Peter Mares With an historic El Niño under way in the Pacific, Australia could face record temperatures this summer. For those in hot homes, reflective roof coatings can be a cost-effective way to beat the heat. The upstairs bedrooms and office in Nic Jacobson's two storey home in inner-suburban Adelaide used to get unbearably hot, even when his large air-conditioning system was running flat out.
Cooler roofs will prevail: colours and coatings to help beat the heat
Most Australian house roofs are medium to dark in colour, even though lighter shades generally reflect more heat. Photograph: Justin Paget/Getty Images With an historic El Niño under way in the Pacific, Australia could face record temperatures this summer. For those in hot homes, reflective roof coatings can be a cost-effective way to beat the heat.
Family trouble • Inside Story
After home affairs minister Tony Burke postponed his Press Club speech in early August, the ABC reported he was considering tighter rules for family migration. Data obtained by Inside Story shows two things: reform to this migration stream is urgently needed, and the government’s options are heavily constrained. Family migration is better understood as partner and parent migration, for these two groups dominate the intake.
Will life return to the Anglesea River? • Peter Mares
“Our vision is that you’ll never know we were here,” says Alcoa’s Warren Sharp. “We want to be an exemplar for mine rehabilitation.” Tall and wiry, Sharp wears safety glasses, a high-vis shirt and matching yellow helmet. His manner is genial. His audience — a delegation from the Friends of the Anglesea River — is more reserved. We’re standing on a grassy bank in the hinterland behind Anglesea, about ninety minutes’ drive southwest of Melbourne.
Victoria’s new Premier should rethink the demolition of Melbourne’s public housing towers
With less than 100 days until the state election, and with Labor behind in the polls, Victorian Premier Ben Carroll wants to set himself apart from his predecessors. He has delayed controversial work-from-home legislation championed by Jacinta Allan and called a royal commission to investigate corruption in the construction industry under her watch. Spinifex is an opinion column. If you would like to contribute, contact us to ask for a detailed brief.
Do the big parties want more affordable housing or not? • Peter Mares
Angus Taylor says changes to negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount have put housing into “freefall,” blaming Labor’s “toxic taxes” for “a collapse in the housing market.” His comments followed news that house prices have fallen across most of the nation since May and ANZ forecasts that Sydney prices could drop by up to 14.5 per cent by the end of next year.
Orders from above • Peter Mares
Ben Carroll wants to convince Victorian voters he is neither Daniel Andrews nor Jacinta Allan. The new Labor premier’s first act was to call a royal commission into the construction industry, distancing himself from the crime, corruption and waste that plagues the state’s “Big Build.” And he is far less enthusiastic than his predecessors about Labor’s $34.5 billion Suburban Rail Loop, which aims to reshape Melbourne into a city of dispersed centres.
Want higher productivity? Replace backpackers with Pacific workers
Productivity is the holy grail of economic policy, and public concern about immigration is running hot. These two issues intersect in Australia’s rural labour market. Horticultural producers rely heavily on two sources of seasonal labour – backpackers from the 50 countries with which Australia has working holiday agreements, and Pacific workers arriving under PALM, the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme.
PALM: A labour mobility scheme that lacks mobility
The noodle bar is quiet when I arrive. It’s Saturday, and Samuel* has promised to introduce me to a couple of Fijians employed at the local abattoir under the PALM scheme. I offer to buy them lunch, and shortly before midday, Samuel texts to ask if it’s OK if another two PALM workers join us. “Great”, I reply, thinking that I might now meet four workers, rather than two. We take a table big enough to seat six, but add extra chairs and tables when more workers arrive than expected.
‘Win-win’: How temporary labour migration benefit Australian employers and Pacific families
When I arranged to visit Mossmont Nurseries outside Griffith in the NSW Riverina, I pictured something like an expanded version of the garden centre at Bunnings. The reality is starkly different. In the words of Jonathan Moss, it’s “a tree factory”. Moss is a sixth-generation owner of this family business, which has been around for 170 years.
Australia’s Pacific worker scheme is far from perfect - but we can make it better
The Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme (PALM) is a crucial source of workers across regional Australia. About 32,000 people from nine Pacific nations and Timor-Leste work in Australia under PALM. Over seven months of researching the scheme – interviewing workers, employers, country liaison officers, trade union organisers, community volunteers and academics, as well as digging into the data on it – I didn’t encounter anyone who thought it was a bad idea.
Best books of 2025: our experts share their picks Original
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The end of the year means holiday celebrations, summer breaks … and for us, one important thing: best books lists. We asked 35 expert readers for their favourite picks, ranging from novelists to anthropologists, scientists to criminologists – and experts in politics, publishing and philosophy. The only rule? The book had to be published this year. And the Books & Ideas team are sharing our own best books of 2025.
By James Ley, Jo Case Verified, Alexander Howard, Alice Grundy, Allanah Hunt, Andrew Pippos, Carol Lefevre, Edwina Preston, Elizabeth Finkel, Emma Shortis, Euan Ritchie, Eve Vincent, Fiona Wright Verified, Intifar Sadiq Chowdhury, Jen Webb, Jindan Ni, John Long, John Quiggin, John Woinarski, Joelle Gergis, Julian Novitz, Juliet Rogers, Jumana Bayeh, Lynda Ng, Matthew Sharpe, Melanie Saward, Mia Martin Hobbs, Michelle Hamadache, Natalie Kon-yu, Nick Haslam, Peter Mares, Sandra Phillips, Sophie Gee, Tom Doig, Tony Hughes-D'Aeth, Vijay Mishra, Wanning Sun
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The Conversation
Verified
Australia: No backyard required: I tried growing vegetables on a 20th-floor balcony - here’s what I learned
Don’t let limited space deter you from gardening in an apartment or townhouse. Here are some tips for growing your own food when outdoor areas are limited By Peter Mares The Guardian 21 Jun 2025 Excerpt: Horticulturist Charlotte Harrison from Sustainable Gardening Australia thinks I might have had better luck if I’d planted tomatoes later in the season. “Gardening at height is more extreme than gardening at ground level,” she says.
No backyard required: I tried growing vegetables on a 20th-floor balcony - here’s what I learned
Gardening is good for our physical and psychological health, and there’s great pleasure in plucking ripe tomatoes, salad leaves or fresh herbs to add to a meal. Growing your own food has environmental benefits too, especially if you use a compost heap, worm farm or bokashi bin to divert kitchen scraps from landfill. But can you garden without a backyard?
Is it still worth getting a home battery in Australia if I can’t install solar panels on my roof?
Many people want to reduce their carbon footprint but for various reasons can’t install solar panels. Some roofs face the wrong way, others are overshadowed or subject to heritage restrictions, and apartment blocks often lack space. Landlords are also often reluctant to install solar systems in rental properties since the benefits flow to the tenants rather than the property owner. So is there value in installing a battery anyway?
Struggling renters are all but invisible this election - Peter Mares
Looking at the major parties’ housing announcements, you could conclude that renters don’t vote. Instead, both sides are pitching hard to aspiring first-home buyers, telling them that a vote for Labor or the Coalition will pull the great Australian dream back within reach so they can start paying off their own mortgage instead of someone else’s.
Who's offering more? Struggling renters are invisible this election
Looking at the major parties’ housing announcements, you could conclude that renters don’t vote. Instead, both sides are pitching hard to aspiring first-home buyers, telling them that a vote for Labor or the Coalition will pull the great Australian dream back within reach so they can start paying off their own mortgage instead of someone else’s.
The Coalition makes the case for negative gearing reform • Peter Mares
At the Coalition’s campaign launch on Sunday, Peter Dutton pulled a rabbit out of his otherwise empty housing policy hat by promising to let first home buyers deduct mortgage interest from their income tax. In essence, this would extend negative gearing from property investors to new homeowners. Negative gearing allows landlords to offset interest payments on loans against tax liabilities, not just as a deduction from rental returns, but from all sources of income.
Be careful what he wishes for • Peter Mares
My son, who is studying in London, was amused recently when an ad popped up on his social media feed encouraging him to head to Australia for a working holiday. The algorithm was sophisticated enough to track his interest in Australia but not smart enough to realise he’s a citizen with no need of a visa.
Imagine Sisyphus happy • Peter Mares
As we enter the election campaign proper, Labor and the Coalition are promising to make our lives much better. Inflation will go down and wages up, despite Trump’s tariff wrecking ball crashing through global trade. An ageing population will get quality care without anyone having to pay higher taxes. The cost of housing will fall yet the fundamentals of the real estate market will be untouched. The existential threat of climate change will be managed without restricting gas and coal projects.
Here’s why Australia should build more smaller houses rather than fewer big ones
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A brick can last a thousand years
Generous windows in the timber-framed entrance spill winter sun across a patterned floor. Light bounces off the glazed tiles lining the walls. Pendant lightfittings dangle from an extra-high ceiling. A wide staircase beckons to residences above and a second glass door leads to a landscaped courtyard at the rear. “We did whatever we could get away with within a very tight budget,” says architect Paul Karakusevic.
Buying or building a home in Australia? Here are the energy efficiency features worth paying for
When the summer sun hits the west-facing windows of our 20th floor apartment in Melbourne, my resistance to switching on the air-con soon wilts. This generally happens about 4pm, soon after we’ve lost access to cheap electricity under our solar sponge tariff. I ramp up our power use just as everyone else does, adding demand to an already stressed grid. Even though we’re paying for 100% renewable energy, I still feel guilty.
Lives on the line • Peter Mares
On Monday this week Britain’s Home Office released blurry footage of immigration officials in hi-vis vests escorting men from a bus to a plane. It was accompanied by a statement celebrating the removal of 19,000 people from Britain since the government took office in July.
Australia: Parent visa logjam grows, wait time hits 31 years
If overseas-born Australians want to sponsor a parent to join them permanently in Australia, they can go down one of two routes. The expensive path is a contributory parent or aged parent visa with a price tag of close to $50,000 per person. The cheaper option is a standard parent or aged parent visa, which costs “only” $5,125, but takes much longer. The government sets an annual cap of 8,500 parent visas, with about eight in 10 granted to “contributory” applicants.
Parents are waiting more than 30 years for an Australian visa. The new home affairs minister needs to act
If overseas-born Australians want to sponsor a parent to join them permanently in Australia, they can go down one of two routes. The expensive path is a contributory parent or aged parent visa with a price tag of close to $50,000 per person. The cheaper option is a standard parent or aged parent visa, which costs “only” $5,125, but takes much longer. The government sets an annual cap of 8,500 parent visas, with about eight in ten granted to “contributory” applicants.
Parents are waiting more than 30 years for an Australian visa. The new home affairs minister needs to act
If overseas-born Australians want to sponsor a parent to join them permanently in Australia, they can go down one of two routes. The expensive path is a contributory parent or aged parent visa with a price tag of close to $50,000 per person. The cheaper option is a standard parent or aged parent visa, which costs “only” $5,125, but takes much longer. The government sets an annual cap of 8,500 parent visas, with about eight in ten granted to “contributory” applicants.
Poor at politics, strong on policy • Peter Mares
If the media coverage was any guide, Andrew Giles was the big loser when Anthony Albanese reshuffled his cabinet last weekend. Though he was moved sideways rather than demoted, he was widely seen as a victim of his own performance as immigration minister. Abetted by many in the media, the Coalition had for months been targeting Giles as the government’s weakest link, particularly over his response to the unanimous November 2023 High Court decision that indefinite detention is unconstitutional.
Marinating in liberalism
After years dominating Sydney’s FM radio waves, the notorious Kyle and Jacqui O are out to conquer Melbourne with their mix of smutty humour and provocation. (Kyle Sandilands pops up regularly on Media Watch, most recently for a pledge to masturbate on air.) I doubt either of the hosts would call themselves liberals in the philosophical sense. Yet the tagline on the campaign’s billboards around Melbourne — make up your own mind —is a direct appeal to liberal sensibilities.
Too many bedrooms, not enough homes • Peter Mares
When government MPs talk about tackling Australia’s housing crisis their mantra is “supply, supply, supply.” Michelle Ananda‑Rajah used the phrase when she was launching new homes in her electorate of Higgins. Backbenchers Graham Perrett and Peter Khalil deployed it in support of the government’s Help to Buy scheme in parliament. The slogan was on the prime minister’s lips as he spruiked new housing measures agreed at national cabinet on 10 May.
Dutton is determined to forget everything he knows about migration
As former home affairs minister, Peter Dutton knows how migration works. The opposition leader oversaw our borders for more than six years, so he understands that slashing 40,000 places from the permanent migration program will have little immediate impact on the number of people coming to Australia. Why not? Because arrivals are dominated by temporary visa holders, not permanent settlers, and there is no limit on the number of temporary migrants who can come to our shores — at least for now.
The case for banning billionaires • Peter Mares
When I read that Harrods, “the world’s leading luxury department store,” sells a 250-gram jar of Western Australian honey for £750 (A$1430), I nearly choked on my muesli. At about $40 per teaspoon that would make for a very expensive breakfast — though you do get to drizzle the honey with a handcrafted glass dipper from a jar inlaid with 22-karat gold. It turns out such excesses are not the preserve of upmarket British retailers catering to the aristocracy.
Lord Salisbury’s message for the housing ombudsman
Lord Salisbury’s message for the housing ombudsman … and the housing ombudsman’s message for Australia Peter Mares “Complaints have the ability to reveal the truth,” says England’s housing ombudsman Richard Blakeway. And the truth, as he sees it, is that Britain’s social housing system has lost focus, particularly on the intimate connection between housing and health. Blakeway receives a lot of complaints.
Lost in the post – Peter Mares
It’s a David versus Goliath struggle that began a quarter of a century ago and is again generating daily headlines. One of Britain’s most venerated institutions, the Post Office, falsely accused thousands of its sub-postmasters of cooking the books. Around 900 were prosecuted, 700 convicted and 236 spent time in jail. Hundreds more paid back thousands of pounds they didn’t owe, had their contracts terminated, lost their livelihoods and often their life savings, and had their reputations trashed.
On housing, is Labor listening? • Peter Mares
When the Albanese government asked citizens to help develop its National Housing and Homelessness Plan, almost 1200 people joined community forums, webinars, stakeholder roundtables and targeted discussions run by consultants to the Department of Social Security. DSS also received more than 500 written submissions via its Engage platform, a quarter of them from individuals, the rest from organisations.
‘Oh Vienna’ Where do we live tomorrow?
After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of World War I, Austria became a republic. In 1919, Vienna held its first city council election and the left-wing Social Democratic Party won in a landslide. During the period of ‘Red Vienna’, the state enacted major housing reforms, funded by increased taxes on the wealthy.
Migration by numbers
Recent press coverage of migration hasn’t been good for the federal government. The High Court’s ruling on indefinite detention confirmed the principle that prisoners should generally be released after serving their time, but attempts to explain it were drowned out by opportunistic politicians and compliant journalists. Then there was the unexpected jump in numbers.
Peter Mares reviews 'Unravelling Identity: Immigrants, identity and citizenship in Australia' by Trevor Batrouney and John Goldlust, and 'Borderwork in multicultural Australia' by Bob Hodge and John O'Carroll
I witnessed Australia’s inglorious exit from the World Cup in a packed Balmain Rugby Leagues club. Many in the crowd were sporting green and gold, and when it came time for the pre-match national anthem, the crowd rose almost as one to join in a well-oiled and full-throated rendition of Advance Australia Fair. I was glad that my reluctance to take part was masked by the fact that I was already standing – at the bar as it happens, trying to order a beer before kick-off.
Renters let down by partisan politics • Peter Mares
The final report of the Senate inquiry into the state of Australia’s rental market describes it as a human crisis: “Too many people are struggling to meet the rising costs of rent; paying too much for properties that are in disrepair; and living with the constant fear of eviction and homelessness, unable to plan for the future or put down roots in local communities.” Yet, having spent six months studying one of the nation’s most pressing issues, the committee failed to transcend the...
Best books of 2023: our experts share the books that have stayed with them
Jen Webb has received funding from the Australian Research Council. Anna Clark has received funding from the Australian Research Council. Edwina Preston has received funding from Australia Council for the Arts and Creative Victoria. She is currently employed by the Australian Education Union Heidi Norman is affiliated with the University of Technology Sydney where Graham Akhurst is also a colleague. Julienne van Loon receives funding from Creative Victoria.
And that’s housing • Peter Mares
According to Alan Kohler, it’s been downhill for housing in Australia since Robert Menzies took office 1949. Believing that renters were more likely than homeowners to vote Labor, Australia’s longest-serving prime minister set out to turn Australia into a nation of “little capitalists,” each with a house and a garden to call their own. In the process, Kohler writes in the latest Quarterly Essay, he “destroyed” public housing.
But can we build them? • Peter Mares
Australia has an “unhealthy” housing market overly reliant on the private sector. This might seem a surprising observation from the former national president of the Property Council, Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz, who recently ended a decade as chief executive of Mirvac, one of Australia’s biggest developers. But Lloyd-Hurwitz doesn’t always fall into line with dominant industry views. Earlier this year she committed the heresy of supporting curbs on negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions.
Yes or No, history won’t go away • Peter Mares
In August, not long before the referendum date was announced, I joined a kitchen table conversation about the Voice. There were eight of us, some acquainted, others meeting for the first time. We were all tending towards Yes, but our levels of certainty varied, along with our knowledge and understanding of the issues. The host used materials created by the Victorian Women’s Trust to get us talking, including a set of cards laid face down between mugs of tea and plates of biscuits.
HAFFing and puffing
After months of wrangling, the Greens extracted significant concessions from Labor, notably an extra $3 billion for direct and immediate investment in social housing. In return, they deferred their demand for a two-year freeze on rents. The deal should finance about 36,000 new homes over the next five years. The HAFF is intended to fund 20,000 social housing dwellings, where rents are pegged at less than 30 per cent of household income.
Drop the talk about 'mum and dad' landlords. It lets property investors off the hook Original
Hardly a day passes without talk of “mum and dad” property investors. It’s media shorthand for a rental market dominated by small operators rather than big institutions. But language shapes the way we think, and folksy terminology creates a false impression of Australia’s landlord class. First, “mums and dads” conveys a 1950s, white-picket-fence version of Australia. Are no same-sex couples, singles or people without children investing in property?
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