RALLY- THE PRIVATE SECTOR WILL NEVER FIX HOMELESSNESS.

BLOGPOST FROM OUR ALLIES -
DEFEND AND EXTEND PUBLIC HOUSING
AND PUBLIC INTEREST BEFORE CORPORATE INTERESTS.- PIBCI
by DR JOE TOSCANO

Housing affordability is as we all know, a critical issue in Australia today. Over the past two decades state governments and successive Federal governments have pursued a policy of privatising public housing.

Defend And Extend Public Housing (DAEPH) was formed three months ago to ensure the case for public housing was at the forefront of the housing affordability debate. In a nutshell, the greater the number of public housing units built and maintained by state and Federal governments, the greater the downward pressure on rents and the greater the ability of first home buyers to enter the market (decreasing rental revenue will force property investors who rely on rental returns and capital gains to divest themselves of their rental properties at reduced prices).

So, what is an INSIDE / OUTSIDE campaign? An inside / outside campaign is a campaign that targets parliamentary representatives and builds a direct action mass movement which increases the pressure on parliamentary representatives to make legislative changes.

In Victoria while the Labor Party has a majority in Parliament and the Liberal and National Party have substantial numbers in opposition, two Greens members (Melbourne and Prahran) were elected to the Legislative Assembly at the last state election in 2015.

In the Legislative Council the Greens hold five seats, the Sex Party one, the Democratic Labor Party one, the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party two and the Australian Employment Party one giving the opposition a majority in the Legislative Council.

The ALP is on a knife edge in six central Melbourne seats and with a good campaign it’s very likely the Greens will hold the balance of power in the Legislative Assembly and will determine who governs after the 2018 state election.

The Victorian Greens have a clear policy of promoting and supporting Public Housing. The INSIDE campaign is directed at targeting the ALP government to change its public housing policy. Currently they are transferring both public housing management and titles to both the non-profit sector and the for profit sector. The Victorian Housing Minister, Martin Foley, represents the marginal inner city electorate of Albert Park. He won his seat as a consequence of a door knocking campaign of public housing estates in his electorate claiming he opposed the Liberal/National Napthine government privatising 12,000 public housing units. His parliamentary seat is particularly vulnerable because an increasing number of public housing tenants believe they were lied to at the last state election.

This INSIDE campaign is directed at forcing the Labor government, in Victoria, to abandon its current housing policies and replace them with public housing friendly policies.

The OUTSIDE campaign is directed at slowly creating a mass movement over the issue of affordable housing. This campaign includes public tenants, the homeless, private tenants, first home buyers, people paying off mortgages and people who own their own homes who are concerned at the ability of their children and grandchildren having access to affordable housing. This campaign is centred around holding DAEPH rallies on the steps of Parliament House every month until the state election in October 2018. The rallies are designed to mobilise people around the public housing issue and giving members of Victoria’s Parliament the ability to publicly state their position on the important question of public housing. As we get closer to the Victorian state election and the DAEPH campaign gains traction, the Inside and Outside campaigns will meld into one campaign.


JOIN US for the first of the 2017 rallies midday – 2:00pm Wednesday 8th February.

Listen to the speakers, use the open microphone to state your views.
Dr. Joseph Toscano / Joint Convener Defend And Extend Public Housing

https://www.facebook.com/events/1884382931792031/