Another Monday Message Board. Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please.
I’m now using Substack as a blogging platform, and for my monthly email newsletter. For the moment, I’ll post both at this blog and on Substack. You can also follow me on Mastodon here.
John Quiggin 
With the high cost of accomodation in Australia, it’s time to return to subsidised rental accomodation for first responders. In the past, critical occupations were able to work on public sector jobs that gave access to subsidised accomodation. This allowed first responders to get accomodation close to their workplace.
This is especially important for young first responders. Single people find it much harder to get rental accomodation. Often they are forced to accept shared premises. For first responders it may be even more difficult given their unusual work times.
If there is to be any progress made in encouraging first responders to extend their careers, accomodation costs must be addressed. With supply side problems pushing up rents, the subsidised rental option should be considered. Benefit-cost analysis should be fast tracked to clear the way for a quick implementation.
To continually force first responses to live further away from their workplaces, is to risk losing many of these valuable workers. Retention is essential to overcome the stress placed on first responders who work in understaffed workplaces. Subsidised rental accomodation is one way to boost retention rates. It deserves to be introduced during this period of high rental accomodation.