Thread: Should public land be made available for affordable housing.

I’m not sure if Bob throws up these discussion topics as provocations. In my view threads like these are about social justice and have nothing to do with racial politics. ...until of course someone can’t resist airing their prejudiced views. When this happens it just de-rails what could have been an intelligent discussion about a significant human rights issue.

...back to Land Rovers fellas?

I am no social justice warrior.

Originally Posted by Zeros

I’m not sure if Bob throws up these discussion topics as provocations. In my view threads like these are about social justice and have nothing to do with racial politics. ...until of course someone can’t resist airing their prejudiced views. When this happens it just de-rails what could have been an intelligent discussion about a significant human rights issue.

...back to Land Rovers fellas?

I don't think that this is a human rights issue its more of an economic/political issue.
If there was a large amount of public land made available for affordable housing it would have a signficant effect on house/land values and this would have a flow on effect to the economy as a whole.

So logstically how would you do it? There is crown land around my farm that could be repurposed for public housing but no one would want to live there. Small villages like Cumnock have programs to encourage people to move there but again noone wants to live in the bush. NSW houses for rent at $1 a week

There are already affordable houses and blocks available, they are just not where people want to live. I'm not sure that there is much crown land that could be released in the Newcastle-Sydney-Woolongong at a reasonable price. Who would pay for the infrastructure like roads, electricity, etc for a greenfield development of an affordable estate?
Maybe the bloke in the article would be able to move to regional NSW or SA and rent a house for $120 per week?

Regards,
Tote

Originally Posted by Tote

Maybe the bloke in the article would be able to move to regional NSW or SA and rent a house for $120 per week?

Regards,
Tote

Totally agree, we seem to think it’s OK to push new Australian into regional areas but the fool olde Ozzie battler.....hell no

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

Of course. 115,000 Aussies are homeless every night.
This is a very political topic though so may belong in CA.

I once was a Social Security field officer. I interviewed many homeless clients. A significant proportion were "homeless" by choice. Money otherwise wasted on rent could be used to purchase the essentials of life, grog, tobacco, drugs, gambling, etc.

As to use of public land, I thought that is what the Housing Commission built on.

Caravan parks in major urban areas are dying out due to land values. Parks with a significant population of permanent residents were commonly welfare ghettos. One region I worked once had fourteen caravan parks but is now down to four. The rest are now urban housing estates. Two of the remaining four are now relocatable home parks which dwellings must be bought from the park operator. No vans or annexes allowed, no transients.

Public housing programs have been gutted and stocks sold off, so fixing that requires political decisions.

Originally Posted by weeds

Totally agree, we seem to think it’s OK to push new Australian into regional areas but the fool olde Ozzie battler.....hell no

The govt. tried that in the 1950's in an attempt to get sufficient labour for the sugar harvest. The then Dept. of Labour and National Service had a rule that migrants had to go where they were sent by the dept. for two years. They sent totally unsuitable people to cut cane in a Qld. summer. Few stayed. Most just slid off to easier life in capital cities where jobs were then plentiful. One time a liner full of young Maltese men was sent straight to Cairns where the new arrivals were put to work in the cane fields. After a few weeks hardly a one could be found. They were waiting tables and making coffee in Sydney & Melbourne.

Shades of the kanakas and blackbirding. The WASP community regarded the Spanish, Italians, and Maltese as suitable for this work as they weren't like us, not quite white. Nor were they Irish who were regarded as untrustworthy and disloyal.

The Qld. Govt. even considered civil conscription for labour for the cane harvest but the lawyers said it was unconstitutional.