How do revolutions start? For the Americans, it was because of “no taxation without representation”. For the French, it was the growth of Enlightenment ideals and the brutality of the nobles. Yet for Australia, it seems there is no cause great enough to make the common man throw metaphorical boxes of tea into Sydney Harbour.

In particular, I am thinking about one of Australia’s greatest injustices: housing prices. And the biggest question of all is: why aren’t we marching in the streets about it? Where is our “housing affordability” revolution?

What will it take for Australians to revolt against the housing affordability crisis?

It is clear that many players benefit from the current scheme of things, not least our state and federal governments, addicted to the rivers of gold of stamp duty. So perhaps it is no surprise that there are no significant measures to address housing affordability in this week’s NSW government budget.

The winners appear to be parents, motorists, grey nomads and apprentices. The losers include renters, who can apparently be safely ignored. Pre-election sweeteners, getting tradies to work and big-ticket infrastructure projects are deemed more important (or perhaps easier to deliver) than addressing housing affordability.