All Australian states have types of “better housing” Acts that generally came into force after World War II and are upgraded from time to time. The idea was to eliminate rental properties which would be no more than mere sheds, with no running hot and cold water. It was to endure the bare minimum for the in-coming migrant populations, building conditions that were not often observed earlier in the century, and certainly not in the 19th century. There are complexities with rural and outback dwellings, with no mains water, or even electricity, but, people in remote areas, including Aboriginal communities, are often forgotten.
A report from Crikey.com, tells us that many rental properties, while meeting the minimum with running water and electricity, still are little better than the slums of America, when one considers temperature, being freezing cold in winter, and literal ovens in summer. This requires poor people to spend a large amount of money on electricity for temperature control, just to survive.
