Tenants resist Kennett cuts

By Margarita Windisch

MELBOURNE -- On July 10 a vocal and vibrant crowd of 150, mostly tenants, marched to the Broadmeadows Department of Planning and Development to demand the right to keep tenants groups. The protest was organised by Broadmeadows Combined Tenants Groups in response to state government plans to cut their funding.

The tenants groups provide support and advice to thousands of public housing tenants in the Broadmeadows area. The draft review on the future of public tenants groups also proposes changes to the delivery of services to the community.

Nick Button from the Combined Tenants Groups said that the new funding arrangements not only threaten to kill off advocacy services for tenants, but also places community development in jeopardy.

Elizabeth Thompson, a member of the Tenants Groups management committee, said the plans, if acted on, would be a gross injustice to an under-resourced community with a high percentage of low-income earners, migrants and sole parents. Thompson said that many tenants do not seek help from the ministry of housing for fear of victimisation and discrimination.

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