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Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
There's a new bill before federal parliament calling for housing to be considered a fundamental human right.
The bill, introduced by independent federal parliamentarians Kylea Tink and David Pocock, would require the government to create a 10-year National Housing and Homelessness Plan.
One part of the bill states housing should be considered a fundamental human right for all Australians. Here's how this would work.
Since its election in 2022, the Albanese government has had to fight political battles to pass its housing policies.
This includes the Housing Australia Future Fund: a $10 billion fund to provide an annual $500 million for social and affordable rental housing. It passed the parliament last year.
There's also the "Help to Buy" shared equity scheme. Under this scheme, 10,000 households a year would be eligible for a government equity contribution of up to 40% of the purchase price of a new home. It's yet to pass the parliament.
But many in the community continue to struggle with unaffordable rents, barriers to home ownership and rising rates of homelessness.
Housing and homelessness problems are complex because they crossover different areas of policy and different levels of government. There are many agencies that do housing policy.
But so far, the government has not had a clear plan. Its election promise to develop a National Housing and Homelessness Plan is still under development. And at the moment, it does not appear to be addressing important policy areas like tax and finance.
[...] Tink and Pocock have also taken up our research and turned it into the National Housing and Homelessness Plan Bill.
The bill would require the housing minister of the day to develop and implement a ten year National Housing and Homelessness Plan. This would mean taking a view of housing policy beyond three-year election cycles.
The legislation would also set some basic directions for the government's plan, including "ensuring that everyone in Australia has adequate housing," and "preventing and ending homelessness." This reflects the legislation's human rights-based approach.
The legislation would also require the housing minister to be collaborative and establish some new sources of information and advice for government. This includes a "consumer council," including people with experience of homelessness. This would operate alongside the existing National Housing Supply and Affordability Council: an independent group providing the government with expert advice. The consumer council would be able to escalate matters directly to the minister to ensure it's heard.
The existing government agency Housing Australia would be nominated as the lead agency assisting the minister with the plan. A new government officer, the National Housing and Homelessness Advocate, would independently investigate housing policy issues and monitor the progress against the plan. The housing minister would also be required to periodically report to parliament on progress.
At the end of the ten years, the minister would be required to review and develop a new plan.
Importantly, it would still be for the government of the day to decide what's in the plan. The legislation sets objectives and directions, but not policy details. The legislation does not say, for example, "thou shalt repeal negative gearing"! One government might devise a more market-orientated plan, while another might plan for greater non-market housing provision.
[...] The bill formally recognizes housing as a human right for two reasons.
First, it serves as the constitutional basis for the legislation. The right to adequate housing is a human right under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which Australia ratified almost 50 years ago.
This brings it within the parliament's "external affairs" power. The parliament relied on this power and the human right to housing when it passed the original legislation establishing the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation (now Housing Australia). Basically, it gives the government the legal authority to make such a plan.
Secondly, an effective plan that's going to work across different policy areas and bring in the range of institutions needs a place to start. Human rights provides a way to organize the policy across all the different branches of government that need to be involved.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday July 11 2024, @01:53AM (15 children)
>I think we're already seeing some of that in the growth of the far right faction in recent years.
Current election cycle notwithstanding?
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(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday July 11 2024, @04:29AM (14 children)
Given that the RN (Rassemblement National) and allies went from 89 seats in the French National Assembly to 125 [msn.com], that would be unwise. But then again, would the RN being in charge be an "entirely bad thing"? Eh, Joe?
If you can't be bothered to understand why not entirely bad things happen, then they happen more often.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday July 11 2024, @12:07PM (13 children)
Change doesn't happen all at once, but there is a clear trend in France recently:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/08/world/europe/france-election-maps.html [nytimes.com]
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(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday July 13 2024, @05:29AM (12 children)
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday July 13 2024, @06:38PM (11 children)
Funny, wasn't paywalled to me, and I sure as hell don't subscribe.
Basically, the "far left" exceeds the "far right" by a significant margin in France, even after Marcon's bone headed snap elections which decimated his centrist party's influence.
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(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday July 14 2024, @06:24AM (10 children)
You are merely making a comment about the present state - no trend. If we look at that trend instead, we see that the significant margin has shrunk significantly over recent years.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday July 14 2024, @11:44AM (9 children)
Just like global population will peak "some time this century" unless it doesn't, according to the best predictions.
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(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday July 14 2024, @03:30PM (8 children)
Indeed. I think a few decades from now will be very educational. I don't see actual negative global population growth until some point around 2060-2100. But it will become increasingly obvious that the narrative of uncontrolled population growth is obsolete.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday July 14 2024, @08:38PM (7 children)
Except that 8 billion people livin' 1980s US large is already catastrophic. And we're adding all kinds of energy usage like AI that apparently needs nuclear power to feed its needs..
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(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday July 16 2024, @05:52PM (6 children)
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday July 16 2024, @07:47PM (5 children)
Well, everything is a matter of taste... h. sapiens could very well manage through to a bug-paste utopia of 20 billion people with fuck-all for biodiversity.
I prefer how things were when we had seals in the Caribbean... not so very long ago.
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(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday July 16 2024, @10:54PM (4 children)
Not reality.
Why I prefer 8 billion developed world humans rather than 20 billion BPU enthusiasts. But please pray continue with all the nightmare scenarios that would happen, if we were to listen to JoeMerchant.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday July 17 2024, @12:02AM (3 children)
We are at 8 now, peak is predicted "some time this century". 20 is as good a guess as any. More developed (consumptive per capital) is a virtual certainty, whether via peaceful progress or the chaos of war. Surprisingly few people die in wars
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(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday July 17 2024, @12:55AM (2 children)
Unless, of course, you want to guess better. Then lower is better.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday July 17 2024, @01:40AM (1 child)
Optimistic thinking doesn't have influence reality.
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(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday July 17 2024, @02:14AM
Sure, but reality does influence itself.