2024-09-13
The Victorian Greens will push to stop the Victorian Labor government steamrolling ahead with the demolition and privatisation of all 44 public housing towers across the state as the public housing waitlist continues to grow with a historic new bill being introduced into parliament today.
It comes as public housing residents have triggered a parliamentary debate today calling on the government to protect public housing.
The Greens will introduce their new Protecting Public Assets and Services Bill 2024 which could protect the towers from demolition and prohibit the privatisation of any public assets or services without the permission of the parliament.
New figures reported in the Age this morning indicate a 5 per cent increase in three months in Victorians joining the public housing waiting list that already sits at over 100,000 people.
Earlier this year, the Victorian Housing Department admitted to the Yoorrook Justice Commission that they can’t tell how long people on the list will be waiting for a home.
The Victorian Greens Public and Affordable Housing spokesperson, Samantha Ratnam said that while Labor continues to demolish public housing and hand over public land to wealthy private developers, the waitlist is only going to continue to spiral out of control making the housing crisis worse.
Quotes attributable to Public and Affordable Housing spokesperson, Samantha Ratnam:
“The public housing waitlist already underrepresents the amount of people who are facing homelessness as we know that many people have no faith in this system that takes years, if ever, to actually get a roof over people's heads.
“Labor has no excuse for tearing down the existing public housing that we do have in the middle of a housing crisis when the waitlist is spiralling out of control.
“It’s clear that Labor is planning to force public housing evictions, but public housing residents from the towers are fighting back.
“The Greens are proud to be standing with public housing residents who are resisting the demolition and privatisation of their homes by tabling their petition and introducing new legislation today that will protect their towers from Labor’s disastrous plan that will displace thousands of residents and make the housing crisis worse.”