The housing crisis has split Sydney. This is where the voters have landed

Voters have backed the NSW Labor government’s push to increase density around train stations with fewer than one-third opposed to the policy designed to tackle the worsening housing crisis.

In the first public measure of the popularity of the government’s signature transport-oriented development program, an exclusive survey shows that 50 per cent of voters support the plan to build apartments around 37 stations while one in five are yet to make up their mind.

The largest bloc of support comes from Labor voters (65 per cent), however, Liberal voters are split, with 40 per cent supportive of the density plan and 39 per cent against.

Of the voters surveyed who are renting or sharing a home, 54 per cent support Labor’s plans, while 53 per cent of people with a mortgage also back what the government has set out to do.

The findings in the Resolve Political Monitor, conducted for the Sydney Morning Herald by Resolve Strategic, will cause further angst for the NSW opposition, which is trying to tear up the Minns government’s flagship housing policy with a bill before state parliament.

However, the position of the Liberal parliamentary party is at odds with its broader movement, which last year overwhelmingly backed a bold push to develop homes around every train station and light rail stop in Sydney, in what would be a far more ambitious housing policy than Labor’s.

The Liberals’ planning spokesman Scott Farlow has said his bill to axe the transport-oriented density program was designed to give councils a say on how they develop their suburbs.

However, senior federal Liberals have warned their state colleagues that they should not be on the side of NIMBYs, while key state MPs, including whip Chris Rath and Damien Tudehope, have urged support for increased density, including around train stations.

In a debate in the upper house on Wednesday night, Tudehope – leader of the opposition in that chamber – said he was a “big proponent of high rise near train stations” when he was the MP for Epping before giving up the seat for Dominic Perrottet.

“Members will remember that Epping got a new metro through Cherrybrook and a new station. Guess what? I was out there saying, ‘Where do you build high-rise? Near train stations’,” Tudehope told parliament.

Resolve director Jim Reed said it was clear voters were accepting that building apartments around train stations was an important way to drive more density in Sydney.

“Such is the weight of the housing shortage now that we’re certainly seeing a decline in NIMBY attitudes across our work,” Reed said. “It’s affecting everyone in one way or another, and building homes is the obvious answer.”

The Resolve survey also reveals that Labor remains behind the Coalition on the primary vote, with Labor on 32 per cent (down from 33 per cent) and the Coalition on 35 per cent, down from 36 per cent.

At the same time, the primary vote of independents has increased to 15 per cent. It was 8.7 per cent at the state election last year.

Premier Chris Minns remains the preferred premier for 38 per cent of voters while Opposition Leader Mark Speakman’s popularity has dipped 3 percentage points to 13 per cent.

The polling was conducted before NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey delivered his second budget on Tuesday, which had public housing as its centrepiece.

The government will spend $5.1 billion on building 8400 social homes – with half of those specifically for women and children fleeing domestic violence – in the biggest investment in public housing in the state’s history.

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