Last Saturday my monthly community catch-up was at St Brigid Bar in Doubleview. Many of the issues raised by constituents at this session related to intergenerational equity and housing. I heard perspectives on the effectiveness and fairness of monetary policy as a tool for managing inflation; reforming our tax system so as not to penalise effort; the pros and cons of shifting more of the tax burden to GST; and a lot about housing. The event was attended by homeowners, mortgage holders, renters, and new Curtin residents and people who have been there forever. I heard from a young man who had just bought his first house and an older couple who bought theirs when interest rates were at 17 per cent. The thing that struck me was that the issues raised were long-term, deep reform issues. People were not asking about short-term handouts. They want to live in a country where everyone has somewhere to live and everyone can aspire to homeownership.

Various housing ideas were floated on Saturday: taxing vacant property; limiting foreign purchase of residential properties while we're in a housing crisis; limiting short-stay accommodation; and rethinking negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions. People in all circumstances can see it's not sustainable for a home to cost eight times the median income, as it does now, when 20 years ago it was half that. Homeowners have not complained, as the policy settings from both sides of politics have seen their house value increase over the last 20 years. But there's now a gradual realisation that there are significant economic and social consequences of housing being out of reach for the next generation.

In my earlier Curtin housing forums, our community identified our major housing issues and then had a discussion with some experts about a range of solutions proposed by community members. We agreed we need to think of housing as being about homes, not investments. We need to do density well. We need different branches of government to cooperate so that policies are pulling in the same direction. We decided the federal government needs to incentivise build to rent, tax vacant dwellings, incentivise downsizing, redesign negative gearing and prioritise key trades in immigration. State governments need to review stamp duty, streamline approvals, strengthen renters' rights, limit short-stay accommodation and increase supply of social and affordable housing directly or via developer requirements.

None of these solutions will single-handedly fix the problem, but communities like mine are ready for a clear-eyed discussion about what housing means in Australia, across party lines and across generations, to work out what is fair. This will take some political courage. The major parties must look beyond the next election to the intergenerational problem we've collectively created. What I see in my community that Australians are ready for this conversation.