Agency-based approaches represent a fundamental advance in how researchers and policymakers can address questions of place-based industrial strategy, including issues of governance, leadership, new technology and regional assets. However, these approaches can be advanced further by recognizing the centrality of discourse in regional change. This paper does this by synthesizing two conceptual frameworks: Grillitsch and Sotarauta's trinity of change agency and Moulaert et al.'s framework of Agency Structure Institutions Discourse (ASID). Deploying two Australian case studies to shed light on drivers of change at the local scale, this paper demonstrates that discourse is a necessary component of transformative regional processes. Furthermore, it contends that successful transformation is presupposed by the extent to which local discourse overlaps with local opportunity spaces and forms of agency. Successful place-based industrial strategies need to mobilize these multiple elements of regional change in order to maximize their potential for success.

For an increasing proportion of Australian households, the Australian dream of home ownership is no longer an option. Neoliberal housing policy and the financialisation of housing has resulted in a housing affordability crisis. Historically, Australian housing policy has afforded only a limited role to local government. This article analyses the results of a nation-wide survey of Australian local governments’ perceptions of housing affordability in their local government area, the possibilities for their meaningful intervention, the challenges they face, the role of councillors and councils’ perceptions of what levels of government should take responsibility for housing. Almost all of the respondents from Sydney and Melbourne councils were clear that there is a housing affordability crisis in their local government area. We apply a framework analysing housing policy in the context of neoliberalism and the related financialisation of housing in order to analyse the housing affordability crisis in Sydney and Melbourne. We conclude that in order to begin resolving the housing crisis in Australia’s two largest cities there has to be an increasing role for local government, a substantial increase in the building of social and affordable housing and a rollback of policies that encourage residential property speculation. JEL Codes: R31, R21

This paper examines the role of local government in the provision of housing across advanced economies in the contemporary economy and historically, while seeking to locate the Australian experience in a broader international perspective. The paper finds that ongoing challenges have given rise to policy innovation and new programmatic perspective. These developments have reflected non-systematic, and often disruptive, change rather than the continuation of predictable trends. The paper argues such evolution will continue and will be more likely to deliver benefits to the local government sector and housing affordability if acknowledged and enabled by more senior tiers of government. 本文探讨了在当代经济和历史上的发达经济体中，地方政府在提供住 房方面的作用，同时试图从更广阔的国际视角来定位澳大利亚的经验. 报告发现，持续的挑战带来了政策创新和新的规划视角. 这些发展反映 了非系统的、往往是破坏性的变化，而不是可预测的趋势的继续. 该论 文认为，这种演变将继续下去，如果得到更高层政府的承认和支持， 将更有可能为地方政府部门和住房负担能力带来好处.

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