Speeding up the process of approving and building new homes, is central to overcoming our current housing crisis, a high-level “roundtable” in Dubbo recently heard.

Appropriate and affordable housing will also be central to attracting and retaining key worker groups vital to our continuing prosperity, Federal Member for Parkes, Jamie Chaffey, said after the conflab, that was also attended by Shadow Minister For Infrastructure, Transport, and Regional Development, Senator Bridget McKenzie.

We’ve had a very productive day here in Dubbo at a roundtable with all the councils from the immediate area and builders and other industry bodies to talk about the issue we’re facing not only here in Dubbo, but right across regional Australia,” Mr Chaffey said.

“That is, the shortage of homes,” he emphasised.

The Dubbo Housing Roundtable — run in conjunction with the representative body, the Housing Industry Assocation (HIA) — also discussed the needs of local developers, councils, and stakeholders in the housing space.

“Local solutions are always the best ones; we need to engage with those people to find first-hand the things that are slowing down the process that enables them to build new homes.

“We need to bring them out here to make sure houses are affordable and get young people into their first homes,” Mr Chaffey believes.

He said that affordable accommodation is the key to the future prosperity in country cities, towns, and villages throughout western NSW.

“We need to make sure we’ve got appropriate housing into the future for those who are essential workers that provide services like aged care, health care and childcare,” Mr Chaffey said.

“Without affordable and appropriate housing, we simply can’t retain the young people within our communities, and we can’t attract more people to provide for the future,” he concluded.