By Therese Moore
SYDNEY — Prime Minister John Howard (Australia's richest public housing tenant) will find himself the recipient of a symbolic demand for a $21,000 per week rent increase at noon on Sunday, May 11. The demand will be presented from a rally protesting against cuts of $200 million mooted for the federal budget on May 13.
Echoing the demand "Housing for all! Not just the rich!", tenants, housing activists and community sector workers will rally at 11am at Milsons Point and march to the prime minister's official residence, Kirribilli House.
Spokesperson Lynden Baxter from the Marrickville Housing Action Group said the rent demand of $21,000 a week for Kirribilli House was based on the government's argument that public housing rents should match those in the private housing market.
"According to our calculations and those of the valuer-general, the land at Kirribilli House is worth $19million and the house itself is worth $2million", Baxter said.
"Based on the real estate market's accepted standard that rent should equate to one thousandth of the combined house and land value, this means that as the tenant of Kirribilli House, John Howard should be paying the people of Australia $21,000 a week."
North Sydney Mayor Genia McCaffery said that North Sydney Council fully supported the rally. "The demand for increased rent symbolises the double standard that this government is creating in public housing, with one rule for the rich and another for the poor", the mayor said.
Indications are that the federal budget will include a $200 million cut to public housing. This follows a decline in funding of $114 million in real terms since 1989, during which time unemployment has risen significantly.
Community organisations and church leaders have mounted an intensive lobbying and public education campaign over the last year, in response to the government's housing agenda, initiated under Labor. The churches' "agenda for housing", which has the backing of major Protestant, Catholic, Jewish and Islamic hierarchies, calls for an additional $200 million from the federal government.
"However, the real sleeper is how the state governments will respond", says Margaret Gleeson, a community housing worker in Sydney's inner west. "Under the Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement, as it currently operates, state governments are required to match Commonwealth funds on a $1 for $2 basis. A cut of $200 million by the Commonwealth could then give the states an out to cut public housing funds by a further $100 million.
"This will mean a freeze on new construction and a massive blow-out of the number of households on the public housing waiting lists beyond the current 235,000", Gleeson told Green Left.
"In the inner west, as private rents increase, vacancy rates plummet and boarding houses close, waiting lists for public and community housing swell with people who are forced to pay over 50% of their incomes on rent or face eviction.
"The fear is that the Carr Labor government will use federal government cuts as a pretext for sell-offs of public housing. It is important that campaigns to defend and extend social housing target both federal and state governments."
For more information on the rally, ring (02) 9439 1399 or 9747 2437.