I went for a drive through there a coupla years back or so rubbernecking, that was the limit of that exercise.
Soaring cost of living means empty lunchboxes and more calls for help from Foodbank in WA ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt / By Jeremy Jones and Natasha Harradine Posted 11h ago https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-25/cost-of-living-foodbank-wa/102643744 Rising living costs are forcing more peple to reach out for help.(ABC Capricornia: Rachel McGhee) His house was "wiped out" during Cyclone Seroja, he lost his job at the same time and now has a medical condition requiring regular trips to specialist appointments in Perth. "I've never needed any support or help from anyone, I've always worked, I've always had plenty of money, plenty of income, disposable income and now it's just not there," he says. "I probably wouldn't be eating if it wasn't for Foodbank." Midwest Foodbank manager Jamie O'Brien says Casey's situation is not isolated with the organisation breaking records each month for the number of people seeking food. "We are experiencing demand like I've never seen before, our numbers have just gone crazy," he said. "If you compare June last year, 1,600 people came through the door, then June of this yeas 2,300 people, so you're looking at 700 more people." Sandwich sessions fill school bellies One local program is helping ensure the one-in-five children who attend school each day without food can get something in their belly. The Eat Up program works with Ngala Midwest and Gascoyne to help volunteer groups such as the Rotary Club of Batavia Coast and Apex Geraldton to make and deliver hundreds of sandwiches each month. Ngala Midwest and Gascoyne and Eat Up Geraldton coordinator, Jennifer Pritchard, said there were 12 sessions per year where volunteers make enough sandwiches to deliver to a dozen local schools in Geraldton, Mullewa and Northampton. "When we heard that statistic of one in five children go without a meal everyday, that's too many children not having food to make it through their school day, and that's across all demographics," she said. "This is just a really great program that can discretely be able to feed the hungry students." An Eat Up sandwich making session with volunteers from local community groups. (Supplied: Rotary Club of Batavia Coast) Ms Pritchard said Eat Up provided the bread and fillings, runs the sandwich making sessions and ensures they get to where they were needed. "The schools then freeze them and when a child presents for whatever reason, that staff member can quickly run into the freezer, make a toastie and feed the student and actively spend their time connecting and supporting that student." She said the feedback from schools had been positive with one reporting at least five requests per day through the canteen and a school principal describing the impact as "profound". Rising cost of living bites Mr O'Brien said a number of factors had contributed to the increased demand, including the removal of the rent cap after the pandemic. "You had the rent cap on and that came off and we really saw a difference then," he said. "Then fuel prices have gone up and food prices have gone up, and more recently it's the mortgage rate increase and they're the people we have coming through now. "It's plain and simple, money coming in is not covering the money going out." Foodbank manager Jamie O'Brien says record numbers of people are seeking help each month. (ABC Midwest and Wheatbelt: Bridget Herrmann) Mr O'Brien said he could not see the situation changing in the short term. "It's been like this for at least 12 months and I don't see it changing. Each month we're setting a new record. "That's the challenge for us, more people coming to the door, how can we find food for them."
Politics Federal IBAC ‘Arsehole’: Daniel Andrews dragged into IBAC probe Patrick Durkin and Gus McCubbing Jul 27, 2023 https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/arsehole-daniel-andrews-dragged-into-ibac-probe-20230726-p5drk7 Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews called a journalist pursuing millionaire property developer John Woodman “an arsehole” and sought to apologise to the businessman for a government decision to defer a rezoning decision, according to sensational claims aired in a corruption inquiry report. The alleged exchange followed years of interactions including a lunch with the premier at the Flower Drum restaurant in Chinatown in 2017, after Mr Woodman made a winning bid of over $10,000 at a political fundraiser event. The lunch with Mr Woodman – who at the time was working with alleged Melbourne mafia boss Antonio Madafferi – came just a month after then opposition leader Matthew Guy shared a lobster dinner with Mr Madafferi, which dogged Mr Guy’s political career. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews can’t recall the exact details of his conversation with a political lobbyist about John Woodman. Gus McCubbing The lunch led to a charity golf day two months later in November 2017, which Mr Woodman sponsored. IBAC said it was part of Mr Woodman’s strategy of “developing relationships with and briefing senior state politicians, while seeking to create a sense of obligation through significant donations”. has confirmed he took a $2,500 donation from Mr Woodman when he first contested the seat of Mulgrave in 2002 and Woodman-related companies have poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into state politics, including $160,000 to Labor at the 2018 election. Daniel Andrews presents a trophy at a golf day in aid of the Monash Children's Hospital in November, 2017. In secret evidence provided to IBAC, Mr Andrews responded to the claims, which also included that he asked a lobbyist for Mr Woodman’s phone number to apologise for the slow government decision making. The claims emerged from an intercepted telephone call between Mr Woodman and political lobbyist Philip Staindl, after a political event in 2019. The discussions followed a series of articles in The Age by journalist Royce Millar. Premier ‘cannot recall’ In another phone call intercepted by IBAC from 2018, former Leighton executive turned consultant Tom Kenessey asked Mr Woodman if they could go over the planning minister’s head to Mr Andrews. Mr Andrews told IBAC while he was aware that Mr Woodman had made substantial donations to the Labor Party, “he could not recollect the content of the conversation with Mr Staindl” but some of the claims did not “ring true” or “sit well” with him. Mr Andrews told IBAC “it was not his practice to speak about journalists in the terms alleged” and that he “considered it highly unlikely” he would have wanted to convey an apology for the planning decision. IBAC concluded while the lobbyist had “an obvious interest” to “exaggerate the premier’s response ... to impress his client” the interaction provided another illustration of the “attempts to influence senior state politicians [and] further demonstrate the importance of political donations and the significant role of lobbyists in helping to open doors to decision-makers”. Casey Mayor Sam Aziz, developer John Woodman, former Casey councillor Geoff Ablett The 309-page IBAC report released on Thursday is the result of a five-year probe into allegedly corrupt land deals between property developer Mr Woodman and the City of Casey (Casey Council) in Melbourne’s South-East. The report follows a failed court bid by Mr Woodman to block the release of the corruption watchdog’s report. Clear evidence The investigation has found clear evidence that two councillors within the Casey Council accepted payments, gifts and political donations in exchange for support on planning matters for Mr Woodman. IBAC found that councillors Sam Aziz and Geoff Ablett promoted John Woodman’s and his clients’ interests on council in exchange for payment and in-kind support. In 2020, the entire Casey Council was sacked by the Victorian government, in part due to IBAC’s investigation. “The investigation demonstrated how ministers, members of parliament, councillors, ministerial advisers and electorate officers may be targeted by lobbyists and how limitations in the current regulation of lobbyists present corruption vulnerabilities,” the IBAC Acting Commissioner Stephen Farrow said. As a result of Operation Sandon, IBAC has made 34 recommendations to promote transparency in planning decisions; enhance donation and lobbying regulation; improve the accountability of ministerial advisers and electorate officers and strengthen council governance.
Port Fairy school enrolments drop as rising house prices force families out of tourist town ABC South West Vic / By Matt Neal Posted 5minutes ago https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-03/port-fairy-housing-crisis-school-enrolments-drop/102666308 Port Fairy is a tourist hotspot, but it is becoming too expensive for young families to live in.(ABC South West Victoria: Daniel Miles) Ballooning house prices and a lack of rentals have already wreaked havoc on the pubs and restaurants of the south-west Victorian tourist town Port Fairy. Key points: Long-term rentals have almost disappeared in Port Fairy, with about half the town's houses estimated to be short-term rentals and holiday houses The town's median house price rose from $600,000 to $990,000 in the past five years The lack of affordable housing is linked to declining enrolments at the two local primary schools Businesses have closed or adjusted opening hours due to a lack of staff, diminishing one of the very attractions that brings people to the town in the first place. But a lack of available housing is also driving young families from the town and is reflected in a drop in enrolments at Port Fairy's two primary schools. On census night 2021, just over a third of all houses in Port Fairy were recorded as empty, but the true number may be even higher. A Moyne Shire Council spokesperson estimated that in 2023, about half the houses in Port Fairy were used as short-term rentals and holiday homes. Finding somewhere to live in Port Fairy has become a problem for young families, workers and employers.(ABC South West Victoria: Daniel Miles) Long-term rentals have disappeared — at last check there were just two listed in the entire town, which has a population of almost 3,500. Meanwhile, the median house price in Port Fairy has skyrocketed from $600,000 five years ago to $990,000 now, according to realestate.com.au. Olga Lyons says a lot of families have been priced out of the local housing market.(Supplied: St Patrick's Primary School) "The cost of buying a house in ... Port Fairy is quite expensive," St Patrick's Primary School principal Olga Lyons said. "It's obviously out of reach of a lot of families." This was reflected in enrolments at St Patrick's, she said. About five years ago, the school expanded its facilities, leading to a living-memory peak in the number of pupils enrolled at the school. But since that 2020 high of 206 pupils, the school's population has steadily dropped, with 182 students expected in 2024. St Patrick's Primary School expects to have 182 pupils next year, down from a total of 206 in 2020.(ABC South West Victoria: Daniel Miles) Enrolments at St Patrick's Primary School, Port Fairy 2020: 206 pupils 2021: 200 pupils 2022: 198 pupils 2023: 188 pupils 2024: 182 pupils (expected) "We're getting our fair share of the enrolments from the kindergarten, it's just that the children are not there," Ms Lyons said. "It indicates that there's a decline in the number of young families in the region." She said shrinking enrolments led to shrinking budgets, which affected staffing levels and class sizes. "Next year, we're looking at having to have larger classes and less staff," Ms Lyons said. A diminishing generation It is understood to be a similar story at Port Fairy Consolidated School. While the principal declined to be interviewed, they provided figures showing a similar reduction in enrolments. Enrolments have dropped at Port Fairy Consolidated School.(ABC South West Victoria: Daniel Miles) Port Fairy Consolidated School enrolments 2019: 211 pupils 2020: 209 pupils 2021: 201 pupils 2022: 196 pupils 2023: 199 pupils The number of pupils at the school has dropped by 12 — which is more than 5 per cent — since 2019. That means the enrolments across the two schools have decreased by 28 pupils, or almost 7 per cent, between 2020 and 2023. The numbers reflect a continuing downward trend in young people in Port Fairy. According to the 2006 census, 16 per cent of the town's population was aged under 14 — in the 2021 census, that percentage had dropped to 12 per cent. Port Fairy's businesses have struggled to attract enough staff.(ABC South West Victoria: Daniel Miles) Up the road in Koroit, which has about half the population and a median house price of $620,000, one in every five residents is aged under 14, according to the 2021 census. Fears for the future Port Fairy's housing problem stems in part from its geography — the tourist town is hemmed in by ocean on two sides, while the remaining landscape is dominated by a river, swamps, and a bluestone landscape that makes undergrounding services expensive and difficult. The median house price in Port Fairy is almost $1 million.(ABC South West Victoria: Daniel Miles) Ms Lyons said that without more affordable housing or land opening up in Port Fairy, the town's future looked grim. "If houses continue or even maintain at the cost that they are, it's going to be difficult for families to stay in the area," she said. "I do have fears for the future of the town as a young, vibrant community." Moyne Shire Mayor Karen Foster said it was a worrying trend, and a problem that was on the council's radar. Karen Foster says the drop in school enrolments is worrying.(Supplied) "We know lots of families would love to move here but can't find accommodation," Cr Foster said. "Families and young people are a critical part of any community — they give it life and vibrancy. "We want to keep this town alive [but] already it's difficult to find young people to fill sporting teams and be volunteers. "It has huge ramifications for the community for the future."
A record number of Australians are working multiple jobs to 'keep their heads above water' By business reporter Michael Janda Posted 1 hour ago https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-03/multiple-job-holders-hit-record-high-abs/102679190 Women are much more likely to work multiple jobs, as are young people.(ABC South West: Sam Bold) Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated that 947,300 Australians worked multiple jobs in March, in data released yesterday. Shaheryar Khan, from Melbourne's outer-northern suburbs, is one of them. The project engineer is the sole income earner for his family of five, and has taken on a second job as a rideshare driver to help him meet his rising mortgage repayments and living costs. "I have to do this other part-time work, like Uber, to make up for the extra money that I need," he told ABC News. Shaheryar Khan has started driving Uber on the weekends to help make ends meet.(Flickr.com/Noeltock/CC-BY-NC-2.0) The ABS estimated that just over 13 million working Australians hold just one job, meaning that 6.6 per cent of all workers are like Mr Khan and holding down multiple positions. Before COVID, the proportion of workers doing multiple jobs was fairly steady between 5-6 per cent, but has remained above that level since December 2021. Indeed's Asia-Pacific economist Callam Pickering said many Australians, like Mr Khan, have been financially pressured into taking on extra work. "The growth in multiple jobs makes sense for two reasons," he observed. "First, there are a lot of jobs available and therefore an opportunity to take on additional work if you want more hours. "Second, cost-of-living pressures have created the need for some people to take on additional work to keep their heads above water." Employees face biggest cost-of-living squeeze Separate data, also released by the ABS on Wednesday, showed that living costs surged in the June quarter, especially for working households. "All household types saw rises in living costs equal to or higher than the Consumer Price Index," noted the ABS head of price statistics, Michelle Marquardt. Over the year to June, employee households saw a 9.6 per cent jump in living costs, versus 6.3 per cent for self-funded retirees, 6.7 per cent for age pensioners, 7 per cent for other pensioners and 7.3 per cent for other welfare recipients. "The rise in annual living costs for employee households is the largest increase since this series started in 1999. The last time the CPI recorded an annual increase of 9.6 per cent was in 1986," Ms Marquardt added. While most households were affected by the sharply rising cost of insurance, meals out and takeaway, fruit and vegetables, and energy prices, employee households were particularly hard hit by surging mortgage costs, which jumped 91.6 per cent over the year to June on rising rates. Mr Khan's mortgage reflects those figures. "I started somewhere around $1,600 repayments, and now it has gone up to somewhere close to $3,000," he said. "That's almost unmanageable with one job, with the current job, I can't sustain that with one salary after also the living expense has gone up as well." The Centre for Future Work's Greg Jericho said the figures are "not surprising" considering that mortgage interest costs have roughly doubled since the Reserve Bank started raising rates in May last year. "So long as wages continue to rise less than inflation, we should expect the number of multiple job holders to continue to rise," he told ABC News. Callam Pickering agrees it is likely that even more Australians will pick up extra jobs to make ends meet. "We'd expect this upward trend to continue in the near-term as households grapple with the impact of high inflation and higher mortgage rates," he forecast. "People will continue to seek more hours — either in an existing job or via an additional job — to deal with higher costs and rising obligations." Extra jobs reduce recession risks Mr Pickering said this ability for many people to easily pick up more work to meet their rising costs has helped insulate households and the economy from more severe financial stress. "Job advertisements have fallen steadily this year but there are still almost twice as many vacancies as was common before the pandemic," he observed. "If job creation was to deteriorate significantly — perhaps below pre-pandemic levels — then it'd increase the probability of a recession or downturn. It'd become much more difficult for those struggling with cost-of-living pressures." Mr Pickering does not currently expect that to happen. "We expect that job advertisements will continue to ease over the remainder of the year," he forecast. "However, more importantly, they are expected to remain high by historical standards. "There should still be plenty of opportunities for people to take on an additional job if they need it." Work longer, get paid less While rising mortgage and other living costs may be driving the spike in people working more than one job, Greg Jericho said there are broader structural issues in the economy that force many workers to search for additional employment. "The industry with the largest number of multiple job holders is always the care sector," he observed. "This highlights why the government's National Strategy for the Care and Support Economy is so important to deliver well-paying, secure jobs that enable care workers to earn a living wage rather than be forced to take on extra work just to make ends meet." The health care and social assistance sector has the highest number of workers who do more than one job.(Adobe Stock) Aside from health care and social assistance — where around 155,000 people or 7.7 per cent of the workforce in that sector do multiple jobs — agriculture, forestry and fishing, administrative and support services, arts and recreation, accommodation and food services, and education and training had the highest rates of multiple job-holding (all above 7 per cent). Those employed by utilities, financial and insurance firms, wholesalers, manufacturers and logistics firms were the least likely to hold multiple jobs (all less than 5 per cent). On average, multiple job holders worked longer hours than those with only one position. The average multiple job holder worked 30.9 hours a week in their main job and 9.6 hours in their secondary one, for a total of 40.5 hours — above a standard working week. Single job holders worked 35.5 hours per week on average. But Greg Jericho said that was not reflected in their incomes. "The figures show that multiple job holders work around 11 per cent more hours than single job holders and yet they earn around 14 per cent less per year," he said. "While it is good that people in need of more hours are able to get them, the increase in multiple job holders is a sign that more people are working in jobs that by themselves are not enough to make ends meet." Men with multiple jobs worked the longest hours, on average, at 45.3, while women with multiple jobs worked an average of 36.4 hours a week in paid employment. Mr Khan said he works full-time for his primary job, and then generally does about 20-25 hours as a rideshare driver, making a total of about 60-65 hours of work every week. "It is a very bad effect on my health," he said. "I keep working for all the week and then working in the night and sometimes on the weekend — I don't get that much rest. "And obviously the family life as well, because I'm away during the daytime and then night time, when I come back, it's just an hour, have dinner, go to bed. Then I don't get much time with the kids over the weekend." Women were far more likely to hold multiple jobs (7.7 per cent) than men (5.7 per cent). Those aged 20-24 were most likely to hold more than one job (8.9 per cent), while 7.9 per cent of employed 15-19-year-olds also held more than one job. Only 5.5 per cent of employed people aged 60-64 and 5.2 per cent of those working aged 65 or older worked more than one job.
The member for renters: How Max Chandler-Mather went from young Labor to PM’s foe After doorknocking thousands of households, the Greens MP has a message for Canberra, and it’s one that is increasingly frustrating the federal government as it attempts to pass its $10 billion housing fund. By Rachel Clun August 5, 2023 https://www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...-young-labor-to-pm-s-foe-20230803-p5dtme.html Max Chandler-Mather estimates he knocked on 15,000 inner-city Brisbane doors in the lead-up to the 2022 election, where he wrested the seat of Griffith from Labor frontbencher Terri Butler. Those thousands of hours gave the Greens MP a message to take to Canberra – one that has increasingly frustrated the federal government as it attempts to pass legislation enabling its $10 billion housing affordability fund, a key election commitment. As Labor argues the fund is needed to address the critical problems of housing affordability and availability, Chandler-Mather has one response on behalf of his constituents as well as renters around Australia: not good enough. Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather is taking the fight on housing to the government.Credit: Paul Harris “I’d certainly had an experience of trying to get a giant pile of rubbish moved out of the yard for like a year, finally issuing a breach notice because the real estate agent tells us to do it, and the landlord literally rocks up the next day and threatens us with eviction,” he says. “I don’t think people in parliament necessarily understand how that makes you feel.” Labor’s frustration with the Greens’ intransigence on the Housing Australia Future Fund is palpable. A bill that was supposed to sail through parliament has been stymied by the minor party and the Coalition, leading Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to threaten to use it as a double-dissolution election trigger. Annoyance boiled ever at the end of the tense winter sitting period when Chandler-Mather accused Albanese of misrepresenting him in question time. Photographs capture Albanese firing back, with sources reporting the prime minister told the first-time MP: “You’re a joke mate”. The baby-faced 31-year-old father has riled up the hardened political warrior like no other MP. A tense exchange between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Max Chandler-Mather at the end of question time in June.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen “The level of hostility here [in Canberra] is far, far, far, far greater than anything I’ve ever experienced doorknocking,” Chandler-Mather says. “Give me a choice and I will 100 per cent of the time pick doorknocking in Carina Heights over having to sit through question time.” He knows a lot about doorknocking after campaigning over the years for local and state candidates and, mostly recently, himself. “You get to the end of a doorknock and you feel great because you’ve had, like, 10 to 15 conversations with people, you’ve learned something about people’s lives: it changes your politics a little bit,” Chandler-Mather says in an interview in his parliamentary office in Canberra. Now he is attempting to change politics more than a little, representing renters at a time when rents are skyrocketing and homeownership looks more unattainable than ever for many people. Albanese government to urge Greens and Coalition to stop blocking $10 billion housing bill. Chandler-Mather is one of only a handful of MPs who rent, and his message resonates well beyond the chamber with the third of the population that also has a landlord. His social media posts rack up tens of thousands of views and comments, strengthening the Greens’ resolve to demand greater concessions from the federal government on housing affordability and renters’ rights. “It is a visceral anger and powerlessness and injustice,” he says, “that has some fundamental effect on the material conditions of your life for no other reason other than our country has decided we’re going to throw renters to the wolves.” He says most politicians are unfamiliar with the reality of renting. “I think that probably does affect the way they make decisions around politics or maybe leads them to a decision that it’s okay for instance not to pursue any rental reforms, assuming that people will be okay to wait for that,” he says. “But until you’ve had that experience, maybe you won’t understand why a lot of people maybe are switching to the Greens for instance.” Chandler-Mather himself turned to the Greens less than a decade ago. He grew up in West End, in Brisbane’s inner south, in the same electorate he now represents. He describes his parents as “big lefties” although not politically active; his father was a librarian and his mother was a social worker who later joined the public service. Chandler-Mather joined the Whitlam Club, part of the young Labor movement, at university. “I like Gough Whitlam – free university,” he says, but he quickly grew disillusioned with Labor. “You were convinced to join often on the argument that ‘look, you might not agree with everything they’re doing but you can join it and we can change it from the inside’,” he says. “But as an institution, it seemed utterly incapable of changing, and every year things seemed to get worse.” Chandler-Mather left the party in 2013 because of the then-Labor federal government’s decisions on asylum seekers and cuts to the single parenting payment. But he didn’t become involved with the Greens until 2016, when he worked on local council elections, an experience he describes as “transformative”. “[We thought] if we can only reach enough people and have these face-to-face conversations and organise at scale and talk about renters’ rights and talk about these things that electoral politics hasn’t focused on in a long time, actually, a lot of people would vote for that, and it happened.” The message to voters helped get Jonathan Sriranganathan elected to represent The Gabba Ward on the Brisbane City Council. Sriranganathan, who stepped down earlier this year, says renters were being ignored by the major parties. “We recognised that there was another layer of voters out there, particularly younger renters, who were open to swinging to the Greens if we started speaking their language,” he says. “Max played a big part in helping refine that message and pitch.” Chandler-Mather then worked on the 2017 and 2020 state elections, helping Amy MacMahon sweep former Labor minister Jackie Trad out of the seat of South Brisbane three years ago. Sriranganathan says the thousands of hours spent doorknocking residents have shaped Chandler-Mather’s policies. “He has a very strong sense of what his political values are, and what kind of political strategy the country needs right now.” Chandler-Mather says he is simply sharing the voices of his constituents on a national stage. “The way I communicate in the media these days is largely informed as a result of conversations I’ve had with thousands and thousands of people on the ground, and I sort of think that’s how representative politics should work,” he says. He is eyeing an even bigger brawl over housing security. Next is a push to phase out negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions, policies Labor tried unsuccessfully to change under Bill Shorten’s leadership. “Then the broader plan is convincing the government of a proper mass build of public housing in the same way European countries do,” he said. “Winning the argument that someone could live in a really well-built, government-built home for subsidised rent or buy it for cheap, and that we can do that at scale – for me medium-term, that’s how we fix the housing crisis.”
The major political parties in my opinion are corrupt and have a conflict in the way they pretend to serve the public. 1 They don't live in the real world of hardship, they are insulated from housing financial stress. 2 They have a conflict of interest, wanting house prices to rise to gain tax advantages. 3 They have a conflict of interest via owning their own property or several properties. 4 They have a conflict of interest and are overly influenced by moneyed developers and lobbyists who donate funds to their causes. 5 They are more influenced by rich cronies than the under privileged. It's not governing by fairness but by greed. The irony in Australia, politicians are very keen to build high technology nuclear submarines when they can't even build simple houses. Absolutely pathetic government policy!
Opinion Housing may be the third rail for Labor’s second-term pitch Tone Wheeler Australian Architecture Association president August 9, 2023 For much of the past 235 years, Australia had a binary vibe: Indigenous v invaders; Labor v Liberal; cities v bush; buyers v renters. But seismic shifts are happening. We are moving to a ternary age. As Noel Pearson so powerfully identified, we are Indigenous, “Anglo” and multicultural. The Greens, teals and independents are a third political force. Between the cities and the bush lies a vast suburbia. Every business is learning to put social and environmental issues with the financial: the “triple bottom line”. Anthony Albanese (left) and Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather have clashed repeatedly in parliament over housing policy. Credit: Fairfax Media Nowhere is the ternary idea (a computing term for a base of three) more keenly felt than in housing. Robert Menzies’ clarion call for the “forgotten people” to buy a home rather than rent has been so exceptionally successful we now have three classes of home occupation: outright owners, purchasers with mortgages, and renters. Postwar Boomers benefited from housing policies of low costs and interest rates to such an extent that now one-third of households own their house outright, enabling many to own two or more. They are the property developers with a far bigger portfolio overall than the “big-end-of-town”. One-third of households want to follow suit, hoping to pay off the mortgage and play in the property market. And why not? If eight of the 20 richest Australians made their wealth from property, and daddy didn’t leave you a mine or six, that’s seen as the best path to family prosperity. Which leaves one-third of households renting. Given that all governments, of all persuasions, have effectively abandoned public housing, renters are at the mercy of the open market, dominated by multi-property-owning households – the first third. Shrinking incomes keep renters poor, but it is the disparity in wealth between who owns and who rents that defines Australia’s increasing inequality. Could angry renters make Tanya Plibersek vulnerable in her seat of Sydney at the next election?Credit: Tanya Plibersek Our political parties have followed the three-way division of households. The Coalition is for owners, advocating negative gearing and capital gains discounts for investment properties: zombie policies that will not die. In LNP minds, they won the 2019 election on the back of Labor’s promise to abolish them. Property is “safer with the Lib-Nats”. Labor champions the middle third: it’s all about “keeping interest rates low” in the “mortgage-belt suburbs”. Champions of strugglers, they don’t mind that the struggle is to become a property-owning gerontocracy, like their forebears. This has left the final third of households who are renters without political representation in the old binary system. It’s a lacuna the Greens now occupy: a third political force demanding the government take the crisis in “social and affordable” housing more seriously, and urgently address renters’ needs. Their advocacy deeply annoys federal Labor, who didn’t foresee how powerful this play by the Greens would be. Labor’s weak Housing Australia Future Fund, which does nothing effective, and not for years – journalist Guy Rundle called it “four words, four lies” – and its refusal to address the “rental electorate” has the Greens on a roll. Max Chandler-Mather, the Greens’ housing spokesperson, is articulate inside parliament and out, ridiculing Labor and promoting better policies on affordable and social housing. He’s exposed housing as Labor’s Achilles heel. Emblematic was PM Albanese’s reported sledge in the House of Representatives: “You’re a joke, son.” In the Senate, the usually measured Penny Wong unleashed on him. Labor will never forgive him for knocking off Terri Butler, one of their favourites, with his persistent door-to-door canvassing in the inner-Brisbane seat of Griffith. Their strategists are so entrenched in a binary system of “fighting Tories” they were blithely unaware of how effective the Greens’ use of rental issues would become as a ternary force in politics. Their hatred of the Greens is so deep they don’t see the cant from the can’t. The Greens’ success won’t see them win a third of the seats, but to be successful in ternary terms they don’t have to. Labor should be terrified that the next election will see more Greens’ candidates – like the MP for Ryan, unheralded architect Elizabeth Watson-Brown – winning inner-urban, rental-based electorates. In a double dissolution, the Greens could hold the balance of power in both houses. This could be deeply ironic in the seat of Sydney, held by Tanya Plibersek. A recent biography by Margaret Simons devotes 24 pages to her time as housing minister from 2007 to 2010, where she followed in the footsteps of previous left-leaning deputy party leaders, Tom Uren and Brian Howe, in developing cogent housing policies. Plibersek, the longest serving woman in the lower house, must know her seat is now vulnerable to the Greens, particularly since Albanese sidelined her as minister for the environment, a faeces focaccia forcing her to approve more coal mines. In addition to that, poor housing policies could see a progressive electorate turn against her. In defending the indefensible, her air of resignation could turn into an actual one, and we could lose the one current minister with good policy ideas on housing; missing out on one of the great prime ministers we never had. What a legacy that could be. To misread the room so badly, to ignore the rise of ternary forces in politics and housing, that Labor is driven into minority government in one term: 2025 could be 2010 all over again. The Coalition is not Albo’s primary concern, it’s the ternary combination of teals on one flank and emboldened Greens on the other. Tone Wheeler is president of the Australian Architecture Association and the design director of environa studio, which specialises in social and sustainable architecture.