Kate Borland, public housing advocate: ‘Public housing is a good community value that we must respect and uphold and adhere.’
Kate Borland said she’s standing to highlight the public housing issue. She told us that her Dad designed a number of housing commission homes and the Olympic pool, so she knows about structure and architecture. Labor and Liberals are trying to privatise public housing, Kate explained, and through KPMG, the Liberals are trying to overhaul it.
Context: a Victorian Auditor General report found that the operating model for public housing was unsustainable, as costs ballooned while revenues declined. The AG explained as that rent is set at 25% and the department understandably prioritises housing to those in greatest need, who are generally on welfare benefits, the pool of revenue that comes from rent is shrinking. It’s a vexing problem: how does the state ensure that it can afford public housing in the long-term, without imposing unreasonable conditions, or limiting access to, the most needy?
The AG said that faced with knowledge of public housing’s increasingly parlous financial situation, government departments failed to take action. You surprised? Over half of properties are over 30 years old and 14% were approaching the point of no return, yet government didn’t have an adequate asset management strategy, with departments often lacking accurate information about the conditions properties were in.
Earlier this year, the Baillieu Government increased rents for pensioners early this year by almost $10 a week for some people, so that rent didn’t fall below 25 percent of their income in rent after a Federal pension increase. The Government has also developed a discussion and options paper on ‘Pathways to a Fair and Sustainable* Social Housing System’ , which was written by KPMG, hence Borland’s reference to them.
In Labor candidate Jennifer Kanis’s campaign materials, she says the Baillieu Liberal Government is considering increasing rent above the current 25% of income, limiting the time residents can live there, and selling public housing. The Greens are also campaigning on similar concerns. The fact is that nothing has been done yet; these are just options raised (in more anaesthetised but unequivocal language) in the discussion and options paper, which admittedly seems to be ideologically skewed towards that kind of ‘self help’ mentality that underpins Tony Abbott’s comments about dole bludgers.
Borland didn’t go into detail about any of this though, instead she spoke about her background (she’s a nutritionist, works in drug and alcohol, and finished her degree while bringing up a child and breastfeeding) and the value she places on community. Safety is community, for her, Borland says. At one point it feels like she’s almost yelling, ‘I have African neighbours, Indian neighbours, Vietnamese neighbours!’ It’s a bit overwrought, but I respect her passion.
Borland says her father designed renovations for Bob Hawke’s house man-years ago, and she grew up a staunch Labor voter. I found it quite strange how Borland mentioned her Dad so often. Actually, her whole speech felt like someone following the form of a candidate’s speech (the rousing appeal to conscience and shared humanity, the story of how your family inspired you, and your struggle against adversity) but strking slightly the wrong note.
During question time, this little kid from up the front asked: ‘My question is for Kate. What are your views on public housing?’ Me and the guy next to me simultaneously groaned, and he muttered ‘Oh no, the cute kid. Well too bad, you can’t vote!’ Kate then explained why public housing was so important to her and at the end of her spiel, said, ‘Thanks for the question my dearest darling daughter.’
Adrian Whitehead, climate activist
Adrian was wearing a sparkling white No New Coal T-shirt. It had an apple with a bite taken out of it. I don’t understand the significance of that: is it a reference to Apple computers being environmentally devastating?
‘I want to start out by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land’, Adrian said, ‘but also acknowledge that the part of our culture that crushed and killed at wiped out a culture – for the sake of greed and money – still persists today in the large corporate entities that control political life, and manifests itself most concerningly in the area of climate change.’ Fair enough, but I find this level of generalisation in theme-finding almost meaningless, in a similar way to Socialist Equality Party candidate Patrick O’Connor’s attempt to draw parallels between the Arab Spring and the movement against social inequality in Australia.
Overhead gas heaters lit up above the pews as Whitehead started talking about the devastating environmental impacts of climate change. ‘Who will save us?’ he asked. ‘Not the policies of the Liberals, not the policies of the Labor, not the policies of the Greens. The Greens know what we need to do, but won’t say it. We have to go for zero emissions by 2020.’ At this point, Whitehead made an analogy between climate change and quite a sad personal story about a friend with serious skin cancer, at which point he lost me. I did put him first on my ballot paper though.
Love it how politicians use that ‘Dad was in building, so I know how to…’. I didn’t realise that those kind of skill-sets were passed on genetically, though since I’ve found out and my Dad is an expert sailor, I’m thinking I should try and sail single-handedly around the world. Mind you I thought I couldn’t swim and had no sense of direction, but I’m sure once I’m out in the middle of the Pacific all those skills will suddenly come to me!!
Excuse me I am not a politician Wez and Raili. Your blog on this I find offensive. How dare you speak of me such. Do you know me? Do you know anything about the great work my father did and what he stood for? Do some research and while you are at it think about how relevant what people like me who have had parents that have actually believed in something take that something and carry it forth. This is a very important issue and with a name like yours Raili can only assume that your family came to Australia and have made a better life, how is that for a generalization. I stand for something and I am proud that rather than sit on a computer got out and did something to inform people about a real injustice that is occurring in the world today.
Wow!! For what I thought was just a general philisophical statement about the nature of people, I sure seem to have struck a nerve! I purposefully used myself within my comments (regards my inabilities at martial arts) to reflect my own failings as a human being in this area. I’m sorry that you seem to have taken this as a personal attack on yourself Kate, but I was expressing my own opinion – as is the nature of free speech. I intend no hatred or malice towards you.
I’m actually taken aback by your reaction to this and wonder now (without knowing you) whether you are mentally healthy enough to represent other people’s views on anything. Wow, I’m actually shocked by your response, incuding the barely veiled racism. Wow!! I don’t know what else to say and therefore will take no more part in any discussion with yourself. Wow!!
Wow Wez, Wow, Wow we……
Do politicians use it though, or is a crude technique?
No, you are right. I think it’s crude technique. I actually believe in many cases the person using it actually believes that they have somehow gained a smattering of their parent’s skills. I’m sure I’ve even used it myself. I recall, when discussing my martial arts skills (limited), often mentioning my Grandfather’s skills and my Mother’s NZ junior judo championship title and also my father’s (city wide) karate awards. It’s strange because I actually practiced a completely different art from any of them and have no awards, but somehow seek to gain some kudos from their history of a vaguely related nature.
Your description of Kate Borland’s use of this ‘method’ reminded me of Sarah Palin’s similar use (or possibly it was a comedy sketch about her) where she claimed to know about foreign policy regards the USSR as she could see it from her bedroom window.
I do think it’s a strange habit, though I’m generally more concerned with the additional ‘respect’ that this bestows on people regards a topic they actually have very little practical knowledge about. But hey, this just seems to be modern politics, or maybe it’s always been that way, but the stakes just now seem to be a lot higher.
Anyhow, I do witter on… and this is your blog so I’ll stop typing right now.
Witter I think you mean BITTER is my response to your blog reply.
There is quite a lot to know about public housing and Kate had hardly any time to speak. So she used the time to explain where she was coming from. A summary of her position on public housing was on the draft how-to-vote card on the front table which you don’t seem to have read!
So, no, architecture is not passed on by genetics but the fact that her father was a communist and an architect who designed public housing (not the concrete boxes on the inner city estates!) is an important part of Kate’s motivation and background. So the comparison with Sarah Palin is foolish as well as nasty…..
Thanks though for the space you gave Kate and the public housing issue. (I’m closely involved in her campaign)
Thanks Jeremy. It wasn’t me who made the comparison to Palin. And yes, 4 minutes wasn’t long. Do you have a link where we can get a summary of Kate’s position on public housing?
Hi Jeremy,
No it was me, who made (or didn’t) make the comparison. I actually said, it REMINDED me, I didn’t say it was similar. Also, I didn’t read the literature on the front table as I don’t live in Melbourne!! However be assured, that my comments were not meant as direct attack on Kate, but were merely stating my own opinion about this facet of human behavior. I am a little worried that my comments should illicit such a reaction though and would advise considering and employing the old maxim of ‘Count to 10…’, especially if you are hoping to remain or take part within the political arena.. However, this is once again ONLY MY OPINION, so please don’t take it as an attack, it is merely advise. You are ‘free’ to consider or reject it
Good luck on your campaign.
Anyway, I believe I’ve probably already taken up too much space on Raili’s blog and shall forthwith desist. Thank you for your time.
I take some of that back, I DID actually say similar… but I didn’t mean Kate was similar to Sarah Palin, I don’t actually know either of them. However the words and actions SEEMED similar to me. Right, I am really done this time. Kind regards.