Around 450 people packed the Capitol Theatre on October 23 to hear how Victorian Labor’s plan to demolish 44 public housing towers is contrary to common sense, community sentiment and residents’ human rights.
The panel of human rights experts, architects, lawyers, academics, public housing residents, academics and front line workers agreed the plan to privatise public assets was extremely ill-considered.
Ebony Bennett from The Australia Institute spoke about the state’s poor record in providing public housing over two decades. She said while there are more houses for each adult than ever before, houses are the least affordable they have ever been.
Bennett highlighted the Defence Housing Authority as a successful model for affordable housing and questioned why the government had not set up a teacher’s housing authority and other co-operative authorities to build housing for their members. “If we can build public housing for US soldiers as part of the AUKUS deal, why can’t we build houses for Australian citizens.”
Victoria has the lowest level of public and community housing in the country — 2.8%. More than 58,000 households are on the public housing waiting list; many more are in over-priced sub-standard private rental accommodation.
Despite this, Labor wants to demolish 44 public housing towers — 6660 homes.
Margaret Kelly, former Barak Beacon public housing estate resident and long-time fighter for public housing, related their powerful stories against demolition and why they want to see public housing thrive and grow.
No evaluations of the structural conditions of the buildings have been released to justify this far-reaching decision and the opaque process that justifies it.
Several speakers, including Simon Robinson from the not-for-profit architecture firm OFFICE, called for the towers to be retrofitted, citing multiple independent reports showing this was cheaper and quicker, and kept communities together. It is also more environmentally sustainable.
Despite announcing the demolition plans more than a year ago, Labor has not yet given any costing to rebuild the public estates. But it has signed off on a $100 million contract with John Holland to knock down the first five towers in Carlton, Flemington and North Melbourne.
Louisa Bassini, from Inner Melbourne Community Legal, who is in court on October 27, with North Melbourne public housing resident Barry Berih, the lead plaintiff in a class action against the government’s proposed demolition, spoke about the disgraceful process and attitude to the public housing residents.
The government’s failure to release evidence to back up its decision to knock the towers down shows there is no justification for the decision, except its desire to continue privatisating public assets.
Karen Fletcher from Flat Out made an impassioned appeal to build real communities and stop the corporatisation of the public housing sector.
While Victoria spends the least of any state on public housing, it has increased funding for prisons to $3 billion over 2018–2020.
Kate Shaw, the event organiser, reminded the meeting that this attack on public assets is the latest in the government’s privatisation spree, which includes health, education, aged care, utilities and childcare.
Shaw challenged the Victorian Council of Social Service, Community Housing Industry Association, Tenants Victoria, Council of Homeless Persons and Victorian Public Tenants Association for refusing to sign on to the event’s three demands and not attending.
Questions from the floor and the networking afterwards ensured the fight against the demolition has become a lot stronger.
