Figured better to link this page but the meat is in the linked PDFs. The critical explainer in particular doesn’t pull the punches.
Harm from displacement and community fragmentation: In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, more than 10,000 people have just been thrown into a very uncertain future knowing that they will be displaced and their communities broken up. The harmful effects of displacement on health, wellbeing, social connection, and life opportunity are well known. Displacement of low-income communities is known internationally to cause serious harm and death.
Figured better to link this page but the meat is in the linked PDFs. The critical explainer in particular doesn’t pull the punches.
Harm from displacement and community fragmentation: In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, more than 10,000 people have just been thrown into a very uncertain future knowing that they will be displaced and their communities broken up. The harmful effects of displacement on health, wellbeing, social connection, and life opportunity are well known. Displacement of low-income communities is known internationally to cause serious harm and death.
With the tower sites they’re already flagging that it’ll only be about 1/3 public with the rest commercial meaning how much land is retained is in question. At a minimum public housing priorities will lose any strata vote.
There are good reasons not to build monolithic public housing but communities need to be retained and it would mean the scale would need to be even bigger. As it is it won’t even cover the wait lists.
There’s zero trust in this government when it comes to public housing and mostly for well founded reasons.
Considering the US far right’s evident interest in insurrection it’s almost a little surprising this wasn’t the lead case. The more non-white military officers the more difficult it would be for US fascists to put together an openly white supremacist coup.
It’s difficult to have any faith in this government taking public housing needs seriously after how it has behaved since installation. Everything thus far has prioritised developers and shown near zero regard for community and amenity for public housing residents.
Thanks for getting out into the streets today if you did. Remember that win or lose there's going to be much to be done beyond October 14. Stay active, please. You'll be needed.
Outrage at the accusation of racism would require an understanding that racism is abhorrent. From the likes of Dutton, many of the figureheads of the reactionary No campaign, and from the commentators amplifying this supposed outrage from The Australian’s pages we have years - often decades - of behaviour and speech which suggests they do not possess that understanding.
Similarly, expect the networks and avenues of communication being built to be rolled into other areas as well. Trans rights, same sex marriage etc. will all be targets anew. Wouldn’t entirely be surprised if we started to see a push back against gun laws either.
We’ve had hints of this in the past but this is by far the most direct coupling between the US reactionary right and Australia’s.
Nearly 40 per cent of Victoria’s prisoner population is housed in three privately managed prisons – Port Philip Prison, Ravenhall Correctional Centre and Fulham Correctional Centre. As a consequence, Victoria has the largest proportion of privately managed prisoners in Australia, while Australia has the largest proportion in the world.
It’s absolutely central to why, right across the country, we’re doubling down on carceral approaches that we know increase offending rather than reducing it. There’s vested interests keen to ensure that.
It’s very clear at this point that Albanese has put stakes on the table that his government was utterly unprepared to fight for.
Albanese was in parliament for the peak of the History Wars period, the 1999 referendum, and the dissolution of ATSIC. He can not reasonably claim he was unaware of what the opposition to this would look like and how it would behave, and yet none of it was preempted.
Unless there is something truly remarkable waiting in the wings I fear signing these writs effectively sees serious steps toward reconciliation pushed back another generation.
Some actual public housing expenditure is welcome, but for it to be 10% of the handout of developers is problematic in the extreme.
With how damaging the Victorian model has proven here and the near complete inaction on public housing it has whitewashed I'm inclined to think this was a policy better sunk entirely. It spends money and commits capacity to developers that we need to build true public housing.
Whilst this department has been a mess for years it's difficult to see that staffing cuts on this scale will be any improvement without major cultural and procedural changes being made first.