It seems when the Budget takes one step forward, the display of priority drags them many steps back. This Budget does not prioritise social reform, student poverty or welfare support, leaving vulnerable Australians who seek guidance or support during cost-of-living crises in a bottlenecked welfare system.
Browsing: housing
The Anglican Church-associated charitable organisation surveyed 45,115 rental properties across Australia. Only three – all sharehouses – were affordable on JobSeeker, 31 on the Disability Support Pension, 89 on the Age Pension and 289 on minimum wage. Each of these numbers accounted for less than one percent of surveyed properties.
A historic building owned by the University of Sydney has been sold for $16.5 million today after a successful bid by a private developer. A bidding war saw prices escalate from $9 to $16.5 million in just over ten minutes.
One of the most significant shifts over the past two years is the relocation of students from inner Sydney suburbs, to suburbs further away from campus — with high numbers living outside three kilometres of USyd.
In capitulating to Labor and passing the HAFF, the Greens threw away the goodwill of renters they had mobilised and ceded to the neoliberal logic that this housing crisis is an issue of supply, not structural inequality.
International House is a snapshot of student life, suspended in amber. A relic from a time when the University valued the student experience over surplus dollars.
Housing, opposing war, and standing up to bigots — the June Council showed that maybe, just maybe, student politicians aren’t just power hungry.
The key demands included the immediate introduction of a rent freeze, the construction of more public housing, and reversing the privatisation of public housing.
What little power that we do have, we must zealously make use of.
While the increase to YouthAllowance and Austudy will be of significance for the payments’ recipients, young people should not lose sight of the government’s distorted approach to welfare increases across the board.
