On the Pivot - a script for a radio program.

The Pivot to Asia

The term pivot is sometimes claimed to be a word that is too hard for the ordinary citizen to comprehend.  It is a term that only those who study international relations or are specialist journalists or activists readily understand.  In the context that Obama used it in 2011 was that it was a sudden turn in the direction of US foreign policy.  The US is changing its direction in foreign policy.  Formally it has been preoccupied with the Middle East and Europe and now it is going to concentrate more of its efforts in the Asia region.  The US and current Australian usage now focuses on the word ‘rebalancing’.  A seemingly much ‘nicer’ word with less aggressive over tones but pivot and rebalancing are interchangeable.

What does it entail exactly for Australia?

Each regional ally, including Australia have been expected to increase military spending, make available bases of various sizes and tasks while hosting US military exercises around their countries at an increasing rate.  The US while being the biggest spender on the military in the world is also keen for its allies to pay extra for the their militaries and supply facilities and assets for its use. 

Australia has been the first most prominently involved in the pivot with the decision to station Marines in Darwin which raised eyebrows in China.  There has been many significant moves in other regional countries about the positioning of US military forces with extra ports and bases.

Australia is finding that out that even though it hosts 50 Bases already, this is insufficient to satisfy the needs of the pivot.  Australia has put at the disposal of the US bases in Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia.  The number of bases now at the disposal surpasses the 50 mentioned above and as far as we can tell Australia has had to build and finance the new accommodation for Marines in Darwin.  We can expect more and more use of our territory as some have suggested for Nuclear capable navy craft and drones to be used over SE Asia.

In previous agreements between the US and Australia has seen an arrangement put in place that would have the US using Australia military bases in an emergency.  Since the pivot the use of bases has increased markedly especially the military training bases of Shoalwater Bay Queensland and Bradshaw and a tank firing base in the Northern Territory.  As far as we know the use of these bases are free of charge and the Government claims that the advantage we get back is the use of US military tactics, equipment and training in the US way.  In regard to the Air Force the bombing range of Delemere near Catherine is to be increasingly used first by US air force planes flying directly from Guam or  from RAAF bases in Australia.  Other regional allies will be using this bombing range more frequently.  The US navy is keen to extend the facilities in Darwin and Freemantle for its ships as well as storing materiel for present and future conflicts.  Space does not miss out, with more bases being built near the town of Exmouth, these bases will have sophisticated radar and telescope detection of space based weapons.  For years the US military have fostered the integration of Australian and other forces into it own force and they have named this process ‘interoperability’.

We in Australia could say our whole country has become a US base as they will no longer restrict their bases to isolated desert locations.

The pivot means that the US will have more bases in Australia and even if we had little control previously we now find ourselves completely outflanked by the US military.  Despite many requests from Anti Bases and IPAN, we have had no assurances from the Australian Government that it will Ban the US from launching military attacks on other countries from our shores.

The previous Gillard ALP Government caused some distress in Washington when it cut military spending by $5 billion in 2013.  Envoys from the States came out and abraded us for our lack of effort in relation to military spending.  One media report ran:

Former United States deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage has criticised Australia for appeasing China in a toned-down Defence white paper and warned Australia can’t continue “free riding” off its alliance with the US. August 2013

We counter what more do they want?  They already have had Australia spend over $15 billion on the war in Afghanistan and lose over 40 lives plus many disabled by injuries for life.  Australia provides free access to our military facilities and training bases plus the dedicated 50 US Bases.  The simple answer to what more do they want is the US wants MORE.  More treasure, more subservience, more Australian troops doing what is in the interests of US foreign policy in the Asia Pacific and still they will not be satisfied.  

The Abbott Government has announced it wants to see military spending go from around 1.4% of GDP to 2% of GDP in real terms from around $27 billion to $50 billion per year.  Already the Government is promising cuts in services and jobs in an effort to enable it to pay for the present level.  The attack on the poor presently under way in Australia can only have at its heart a desire by the Federal Government to direct more money into the military. 

The pivot will cost Australian lives as services are cut and austerity measures kick in to finance the exorbitant military spending.  Unrest and unpopularity caused by these measures and organised resistance is the only force which can turn the Government from excessive military spending.  Even the Abbott Government has had to delay the submarine program of the Rudd Government which was to cost $100 billion.  Suddenly a report has stated after years of mocking of the Collins Class subs they have gone from ‘dud subs’ to remarkable, astonishing in a report by British submarine expert John Coles.  Even more recently on 9^th April 2014 the Defence Minister announced that the plans for 12 subs have been put on hold.

More military exercises with the US are firmly on the agenda on Australian soil and in the region.  The main Australian exercise Talisman Sabre a two yearly event will become even bigger, include more elements of civil society and more expensive.  The training component of the Pivot is substantial in Australia and other parts of the region.  In Australia, there has been a huge US military investment in Shoalwater Bay to enable it to be wired to US headquarters in Hawaii as well as building facilities at Bradshaw for landing huge US air force transport planes.

The pivot effects Australia in broader ways too.

The pivot presents many problems for us internationally as we are unable to act in our own interests and find ourselves in an odd situation with China.  China is our main trading partner and the country which we rely on to get us out of economic misery in downturns yet we are in planning with the US to help it attack China.  Australia will have to decide which way it will go either for China or US, it cannot maintain the current Schizophrenic policy where it trades China and assists the US to surround and strangle.

We all know how embarrassed the Australian Government is by the Snowden revelations.  They mean that the Government is helping the US spy on Australian citizens, regional leaders for example the wife of the Indonesian president.  Again this weakens the view of Australia as a reasonable progressive and democratic nation among our neighbours and instead projects an unpleasant image.

As well Pine Gap and Shoal Bay assist the highly illegal drone war being waged in Pakistan by the CIA.  This activity means Australia is involved in human rights violation by extra judicial killing.

The other part of the pivot is the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deals which seeks to deal China out of the equation in this region.  Despite this being a scheme to block China from trade and increase the influence of the US it is not an exercise in charity by the US towards Australia and the region.  The TPP will demand more and more resources and services which Australians expect.  There is much angst about the possible repercussion of this agreement on our film industry and our medical programs to name but a few.

We have had reports that the Local Government and Territory Government were fiercely sidelined when Obama came to town to massage the pro US feeling.  Only the most fawning of officials were invited and all reports of dissent were ignored.  The privot threatens democracy by stifling debate and information sharing.

The fightback

Both the two major parties fall over each other to prove who is the most pro US and the media gives us wall to wall supportive coverage in favour of the US and its pivot.  The Greens maintain some presence as an anti pivot force but their words are quickly dismissed or ignored.  There is a real struggle to get discussion going among Australian about the benefits and drawbacks of the US pivot for Australia.  The task of the Australian peace movement is to work to get this discussion going in these difficult times yet it is being done.

In the recent past the regular peace marches, namely those marking the end of the Iraq war, Palm Sunday and Hiroshima Day still continue and these efforts and many smaller protests have continued.  The Australian Anti-Bases Campaign has taken its fight against US war efforts from bases to the military exercises and has held peace convergences on Rockhampton’s Shoalwaterbay training area as the Talisman Sabre exercise is conducted.  They have been arriving in Rockhampton every two years since 1997 to challenge this exercise and its war preparation purpose.  Similarly, it has along with other peace groups participated in reviews of Australian Government military policies putting a strong and persistent case for reduced spending.  In recent years we have participated in the Global Day of Action against Military Spending (GDAMS). 

In order to support and foster growing resistance to the US pivot in Australia, the Australian peace movement felt it should reorganize and come together in a broad grouping which eventually called itself the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN).  This group has been going for a few years and is gradually becoming more significant in the minds of activists as they fight the US pivot to the Asia Pacific. 

From April 21 to April 26 there will be a series of conferences and events called the Canberra Peace Convergence, on April 21 there will be the inaugural National meeting of all IPAN affiliates and supporters.  This event is vital to get more resistance going to the plans of the US and its regional complicit elites to promote more violence and disruption on our region. 

The National IPAN conference is shaping up as a significant event for all the peace movement of Australia to increase its activity and encourage more people to join us in the resistance to this all out rush to war that the pivot represents.  The academics speakers from various Australian Universities will bring a wealth of knowledge about military matters, resistance matters and a wealth of experience from various peace groups from around Australia.  We will hear directly from Darwin through Justin Tutty and what his Base Watch Group are doing to counter directly US marine activity in his city, as well as from a former US Marine and Iraq vet Victor Emmanuele.  A partial list of the academic speakers is Dr. Michael McKinley ANU, Marty Branagan UNE and author of the book

 “Global Warming, Militarism and Non Violence:The Art of Active Resistance”.  If you have not already done so it would be great if you could get to this historic and ground braking series.

The pivot is not in the interests of the region or its development.  Get out there and get active.

Defend Public Housing

DEFEND PUBLIC HOUSING

By Hannah Middleton and Denis Doherty

On March 19 the NSW Liberal G announced the sell off of 293 public housing properties at Millers Point and The Rocks and the eviction of their tenants.

The heritage value of Millers Point is not just in its buildings, but in its historic use as public housing, and in the long family and community ties of many of the people living there. The strong community spirit, cohesion and long history linked to the working harbour of the Millers Point community are major reasons why the area was included on the State Heritage register.

MAJOR FIGHT BACK

Millers Point public housing tenants have launched a campaign against the NSW Government's plans for forced evictions. Three separate community organisations have combined to form the Millers Point Community Defence Group.

A community meeting to plan the fightback, organised by the Millers Point Defence Committee with the support of the Maritime Union of Australia and the City of Sydney, drew a crowd of 500 on 22 March.

A lifetime resident of the area, Barney Gardner, said he and his neighbours would fight to stay, defying efforts to evict them.

"It will be a fight because we will have many, many supporters; we don't want violence, but we are prepared to go to jail," he declared.

“They will not take away your homes,” Paul McAleer, Maritime Union Sydney Secretary, told the public meeting.

“The MUA will bring the shock troops; we will bring other unions along with us to defend your homes. We will be arrested if we have to.”

Jack Mundey told The Sun-Herald that the fight to save The Rocks and Millers Point and Dawes Point is continuing and he called for support for the residents.'

Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore has pointed out that the Millers Point community survived the plague, the Depression and war.

“It is shameful that it is government that will destroy this proud and strong neighbourhood,” she stated.

Many residents have yellow ribbons tied to their front doors to highlight their fear of eviction.

HOUSING CRISIS

Housing affordability has fallen to its lowest level ever, yet over the past decade more than $3 billion was taken out of public housing.

This has created a crisis, especially for low-income families.

About 500,000 lower-income households are already in housing stress and this will rise to one million by 2020. About 170,000 pay more than half their income in rent.

Anglicare’s report, Rental Affordability Snapshot: April 2013, found that 600,000 families live in "serious rental stress", paying more than 30 per cent of the family income on rent.

The report also analysed the properties available for rental over a given weekend. It found that of 1,015 Sydney inner west rental properties available, only one was affordable for families on income support and only 11 were available for families on the minimum wage.

The wider social costs of homelessness; increased emergency accommodation demands, hospitalisation, family breakdown, depression and mental illnesses are generally ignored.

Over the past decade Labor and Liberal governments in NSW have cut repair and maintenance budgets and privatised 7,000 public housing properties. The O’Farrell Government cut $37 million from the housing budget in 2013.

It is criminal to privatise the dwindling stock of public housing when there is a housing affordability crisis. A home is a human right, not just another way for the rich to make even more money.

WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?

Engels, in The Housing Question, wrote:

“In reality the bourgeoisie has only one method of solving the housing question after its fashion-that is to say, of solving it in such a way that the solution continually reproduces the question anew. This method is …. the practice which has now become general of making breaches in the working class quarters of our big towns, and particularly in those which are centrally situated, quite apart from whether this is done from considerations of public health and for beautifying the town, or owing to the demand for big centrally situated business premises ….. No matter how different the reasons may be, the result is everywhere the same: the scandalous alleys and lanes disappear to the accompaniment of lavish self-praise from the bourgeoisie on account of this tremendous success, but they appear again immediately somewhere else and often in the immediate neighborhood………

“The growth of the big modern cities gives the land in certain areas, particularly in those which are centrally situated, an artificial and often colossally increasing value; the buildings erected on these areas depress this value, instead of increasing it, because they no longer correspond to the changed circumstances. They are pulled down and replaced by others. This takes place above all with workers' houses which are situated centrally….”

Labor and Liberal governments have been committed to an intensive program of privatisation. At federal, state and local government levels, government responsibilities are being gradually handed over to the private sector.

Neo-liberal policies being inflicted everywhere by capitalism include privatisation of public services and areas of governance itself as well as the withdrawal of the state from taking responsibility for the well-being of the people and society at large.

Public housing has taken a hammering over recent years, with public housing stock gradually being neglected and/or privatised.

Privatisation results in a fundamental change in the objective of service provision from one of providing government or the public with a service based on needs to one where the service becomes a vehicle for making private profits.

The NSW Liberal Government’s plans for Millers Point are yet another case of private profit winning out over community needs and wishes.

The O’Farrell Government will not only not have to spend money maintaining the heritage properties but it will also gain windfall profits by selling properties which have been in public hands for over 100 years to private buyers.

It  is no secret that there is a push to gentrify the area, with a six star hotel and high-rollers-only casino planned for Barangaroo, just streets away.

Millers Point residents point out that NSW Minister Pru Goward has said they all have to be gone in two years which is just when Barangaroo will be up and running.

THE LINK TO GLEBE

A cruel and greedy plot linking the Millers Point evictions to earlier evictions and privatisation of public land in Glebe is gradually being exposed.

The government claims the 99-year leases it is selling at Millers Point will fund the new development in Cowper Street in Glebe, but that site was already promised to its former residents who have now been waiting almost four years.

Public housing on the Glebe site was demolished in 2011 under the former Labor government and 130 tenants were evicted, breaking its promise to provide more public housing and to rehouse its former residents.

The O’Farrell cabinet approved construction plans for 153 public housing units, 95 affordable housing units and 247 private apartments. Glebe residents fought hard to keep all the land for public and affordable housing.

Now we learn (The Sun-Herald, 23/3/14) that “Treasurer Mike Baird will sign over the title to a large parcel of vacant public housing land in Glebe to community housing groups within weeks…..

“Non-profit community housing groups City West and Bridge Housing will construct and manage the new properties….

“If construction starts this year, the project is expected to be completed in December 2016, which coincides with the timeline for moving elderly Millers Point tenants.”

THE WORK OF COMMUNISTS

Communists have a proud record of fighting for public housing and for a better deal for public housing tenants.

Communists were in the front line of battles to stop evictions in Redfern and other areas of the inner city during the Depression in the 1930s.

They were in the front line when The Rocks were saved from the developers by residents and Green Bans imposed by the NSW Builders Labourers Federation in the 1970s.

But goes back further than that.

Patrick Troy says the role of Communist led unions was crucial in the drive to increase home ownership in the 1960s and writes:

“CPA pamphlets, especially during election campaigns, recording the party’s policy on housing referred repeatedly throughout the mid-1940s and 1950s to the need to control house rents and called for a major increase in house construction.

“In its submission to the Commonwealth Housing Commission in 1944 the CPA argued for a massive public housing program. It also proposed that housing be built for private ownership and sold on terms that restricted its sale for a period in order to dampen speculation and to prevent  the reappearance of large property owners.” (Accommodating Australians by Patrick Troy, Federation Press 2012, p 135)

OUR ALTERNATIVE

The development of a large public sector, where enterprises and services are run on the basis of public need, not private greed, is a fundamental pillar of CPA policy.

The CPA also fights for a number of important principles including

·              A decent home should be a basic human right, not an opportunity for more profit making

·              The state must take responsibility for the provision of basic infrastructure and services to meet the needs of the community and business.

·              There must be universal access to services -- education, health, public housing, public transport and so on

·              The state must provide support for those unable to provide for themselves on an ongoing basis or during specific times such as during unemployment, old age, disability, sickness, homelessness, poverty.

It is all a question of social priorities. The government should re-direct massive, wasteful funding for environmentally unsustainable road infrastructure like WestConnex, and invest the money into positive, socially progressive and sustainable projects like more public housing.

The basic demands for public housing are:

·              Public housing which is accessible, good quality, affordable, well-maintained and safe.

·              Increased government funding for more public housing and proper maintenance of existing public housing stock.

·              Governments to plan development in response to social needs, not the wishes of greedy developers.

Join the campaign to defend public housing
and to fight the sell-off of public assets!

Education class on IWD

written By Hannah Middleton

IWD 2014

Port Jackson Branch class

Unlike petty bourgeois feminists who see the oppression of women as the inherent biological trait of men, Marxism understands that the root of women's oppression lies not in biology, but in social conditions.

We know that women have not always suffered oppression -– in fact, in many traditional societies, women have been regarded as the equals of men. The oppression of women did not always exist. It is a relatively new phenomenon in historical terms.

It arose with the division of society into classes and the emergence of class society some 6,000 or so years ago. Prior to that, neither classes, the state, nor private property existed. There was no domination of man over women, or man over man.

The rise of class society led to both the rise of the state, which represents the interests of the ruling class in the day-to-day class struggle, and the rise of the family, as the means by which the first ruling classes possessed and passed on private wealth.

For most of human history, wealth was not accumulated.

In nomadic hunter gatherer societies there was no way to store it and no incentive to work more than the several hours per day it takes to produce what is necessary for subsistence. These have been called the “original affluent societies.

And even in the early agricultural societies, it wasn’t really possible to produce much more than what was to be immediately consumed by members of the band.

With the onset of more advanced agricultural production -– through the use of the plow and/or advanced methods of irrigation – and the beginnings of settled communities, people were gradually able to extract more than the means of subsistence from the environment. This led to the first accumulation of surplus, or wealth.

This was a turning point for human society, for it meant that, over time, production for use could be replaced by production for exchange and eventually for profit -– leading to the rise of the first class societies some 6,000 years ago (first in Mesopotamia, followed a few hundred years later by Egypt, Iran, the Indus Valley and China).

Everywhere, as the surplus grew, gradually distribution of wealth became unequal and a small section of society came to control a greater share of the social wealth, putting it in a position where it could begin to crystallize out into a social class.

The old communal forms of organization weren’t transformed overnight, nor were they transformed uniformly from one society to the next. But they were transformed.

Men tended to take charge of heavier agricultural jobs, like plowing, since it was more difficult for pregnant or nursing women and might endanger small children to be carried along. Moreover, since men had traditionally been responsible for hunting game, it made sense for them to oversee the domestication of cattle.

It was under these circumstances that the monogamous nuclear family began to take form. The modern family arose to pass on private property in the form of inheritance from one generation to the next.

Production and trade increasingly occurred away from the household, so that the household became a sphere primarily for reproduction. For the first time in human history, women’s ability to give birth kept them from playing a significant part in production.

Locating the source of women’s oppression in class society in no way limits our understanding of the impact that it has had and still has on the lives of individual women.

Lets look at just a few aspects of the situation today:

Around the world the share of society’s wealth has steadily moved from wages to profit over the last three decades and within this increasingly unequal world women generally work longer hours for less pay than men, are stuck in lower paid, more vulnerable jobs, and have less social protection and basic rights.

With this “feminisation of poverty” is paralleled by abominable levels of oppression of women in the third world. It is accompanied by child prostitution, bonded-labour and slavery. One in three women will be raped or beaten in their lifetime, or about one billion. It is capitalism in the raw.

In Australia life for most women is getting harder every day

70% of all part-time jobs are held by women

Full-time working women's ordinary time, average weekly earnings are still only 82.8% of men's.

In 2009-10, 48% of women with children seeking crisis accommodation did so because of domestic and family violence.

The rate of Aboriginal and TSI women's imprisonment across Australian rose 10% between 2006 and 2009. In 2007-08, ATSI women comprised 29% of women in prison in Australia and their rates of imprisonment are continuing to rise.

According to the Australian Human Rights Commission in December 2011, an estimated 1.2 million women in Australia over the age of 15 had experienced domestic or family violence, usually at the hands of their male partner. ATSI women suffer much higher rates.

Fighting back

Marxism sees the liberation of working class women as a part of the struggle for the liberation of the working class as a whole. While feminists set women against men, the socialist movement attempts to forge solidarity between male and female workers in a common struggle against capitalist exploitation.

Capitalism combines formal equality with economic and, consequently, social inequality. The working women’s movement fights for economic and social, and not merely formal, equality for women. This struggle is inherently part of the fight for socialism, the struggle to overthrow exploitation and create a society where we can live in free association as enlightened co-operators.

The formal rights women have today have been won through long struggles - in workplaces, communities, schools and homes - by women and supportive men. Even hard-won gains are constantly under attack.

Collective struggle is therefore still needed to ensure that women's ability to exercise these rights, regardless of their race, ethnicity, citizenship, religion or disability, are defended and extended.

IWD is a time to not only look at past gains but to look to the many struggles that lie ahead before women achieve equality and emancipation.

CPA PJ branch submission to the housing inquiry NSW on public, social and affordable etc

CPA -PORT JACKSON BRANCH Port Jackson Branch

c/- 74 Buckingham St

Surry Hills NSW 2010

Phone no 0418 290 663

SELECT COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL, PUBLIC AND AFFORDABLE HOUSING

NSW Parliament

Introduction:

The Communist Party of Australia Port Jackson Branch welcomes this opportunity to submit its suggestions on social, public, and affordable housing as shelter as this need is peoples’ most important need after food.  The present situation in NSW is not acceptable as we face a waiting list of 55,000 which will take more than 15 years to clear and a maintenance system that allows public housing tenants to live in substandard conditions.  The NSW auditor general has found that the Department is over $330 million behind in its maintenance needs.

The only solution to these problems lie with the Government not with the private sector and not with Private Public Partnerships (PPP). 

The need for real action on housing can be seen from the sources from as far removed as Boris Johnson, our own history of public housing, and the UN.

We draw your attention to the comments of Boris Johnson the well-known Tory Mayor of London:

angered colleagues by saying he would not tolerate housing changes that led to "Kosovo-style social cleansing" of London. He told BBC Radio London:

On my watch, you are not going to see thousands of families evicted from the place where they have been living and have put down roots... The last thing we want to have in our city is a situation such as Paris, where the less well-off are pushed out to the suburbs.

The politics of affordable housing in London May 17 2011 Economist

In 1944 the Commonwealth Housing Commission said in its report on housing ‘We consider that a dwelling of good standard and equipment is not only the need but the right of every citizen…’

The right to live in affordable housing is enshrined in the United Nation’s Declaration of Human Rights which says in Article 25:

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services…

Housing all Australians

The Communist Party of Australia supports a national, publicly funded housing program, with rents based on a set percentage of the tenant’s income.  Without accommodation people are deprived of their human right to shelter.

We believe government has a responsibility to provide housing for ordinary families and individuals.

The housing should be solid, secure and have the fittings for modern 21^st Century life eg plumbing, heating and connections to phone and internet lines.  Maintenance of the housing and measures to encourage residents to take pride in their housing should be undertaken to make housing estates proud and happy communities.

Our Documents state:

Public housing, which provided rental accommodation for a substantial section of working people, also reduced the pool of tenants to be exploited by landlords. Today, public housing no longer serves either of these purposes. Restoration of substantial public housing would reduce rents generally and provide a buffer against loss of jobs through retrenchment and sickness for many lower paid workers. Party program p17

The Present Situation

Over the last 30 years both State and Federal Governments have sought to diminish and do away with public housing following a neo liberal agenda.  The first step in this process was to do away with Commonwealth Housing Agreement and put the whole responsibility onto the states.  The states in their turn have allowed what is called ‘demolition by neglect’.  Maintenance has been deliberately withheld and many estates are looking the worse for wear. 

The Government has taken on the role of only being engaged in welfare housing rather than housing itself.  Hence the definition of who is to be housed has been narrowed down to the frail, the sick, the dysfunctional and the addicted.  In this climate housing estates are a byword for violence and social problems which provides Governments with a ready excuse for withdrawing from housing altogether.  Public Housing is diminishing all over the country due to these policies.

The private housing sector has benefited by state schemes which enables those most in need to use the private rental market by a combination of subsidies and part payment to gain housing.  These schemes lead to housing stress.  The CPA -PORT JACKSON BRANCH opposes such schemes and agitates for fully funded public housing.

Housing affordability has fallen to its lowest level ever, yet over the past decade more than $3 billion was taken out of public housing.

More than 176,000 households are on waiting lists for public housing in Australia. It is estimated that by 2020, one million Australians will be suffering from housing stress.

CPA -PORT JACKSON BRANCH policies

1.        The CPA -PORT JACKSON BRANCH recognises Public Housing as the means to house all Australians.  This would bring about jobs in the housing sector both in building, and other sectors.  These housing schemes would be also increase the public sector jobs.

2.       The CPA -PORT JACKSON BRANCH does not agree in dividing public housing up into social housing, community housing but will work for an integrated housing scheme where all those on incomes of $80,000 or lower are eligible for public housing.  This will provide a mix of people and not concentrate people in pockets of disadvantage.

3.       Presently the Governments – Commonwealth and State spend 6 times on private housing what it spends on public housing; the CPA -PORT JACKSON BRANCH believes this trend should be reversed.  The money spent on private housing is money wasted and causes the problems with housing we have today.

4.       The CPA -PORT JACKSON BRANCH believes that the promotion of private housing encourages a class approach to housing where the rich get accommodation while those on low incomes get shabby or even precarious shelter.  We oppose all schemes that favour landlords and private housing for the poor.

5.       The CPA -PORT JACKSON BRANCH believes in bringing the cost of housing down and making it more affordable by concentrating all housing subsidies and benefits into subsidised housing.  This process will reverse the ever upwards trend in the cost of housing.  There are few houses and even apartments in Sydney which are under $750,000, even what were formerly moderate costing housing suburbs have become areas where the mean price of houses is around $1 million.  The committee has to look at the whole spectrum of housing from private housing to homelessness and everything in between.  By just concentrating on social and affordable housing the chance of real solutions to the problems faced by the citizens of NSW will not be addressed.  The CPA -PORT JACKSON BRANCH believes its policies will eliminate homelessness and address the issue of indigenous housing.  Australians living in housing stress in 21^st Century is unacceptable.

6.       NSW along with all Australian states is reporting chronic shortages in Public Housing with waiting lists going on for years.  We believe it is the responsibility of the Commonwealth Government to engage in more funding for subsidised housing Australians and expect the other levels of to do the same.

7.       The CPA -PORT JACKSON BRANCH urges the NSW Government to increase its efforts to get the state of maintenance up to scratch rather the woeful state it is in at present.  All public housing maintenance and upkeep should be to a level that the tenants are in secure and friendly places.

8.       Large scale public housing will drive down housing cost making it more affordable and will tackle homelessness.  Support and welfare services for those who cannot cope with housing has to be provided to ensure that those who are vulnerable are catered for as well as support services for all in subsidised housing should also be provided.

Immediate steps to alleviate the housing shortage

1.       Tax arrangements that allow negative gearing to be used to build the numbers of private rental properties should cease, instead investment of funds from super and other sources be encouraged into the affordable housing sector.

2.       All housing supplied by state should be called subsidised housing instead of Housing Commission, Public Housing etc, so as to do away from the stigma of public housing estates.  Broaden the range of people in such housing instead of concentrating fragile and socially disturbed people on isolated estates which is a recipe for social problems and exacerbating our state’s social problems.

3.       We further encourage the Government to stop first home owners buyers schemes which is simply a flow of money into the coffers of Real Estate and Developers’ Companies.

4.       Those wishing to become private home owners could start with living in subsidised housing, while they gather the resources necessary for home ownership.

5.       Housing stress affects 1 in 5 in NSW, the committee should address this issue.  Housing stress happens when over 30% of income goes on accommodation.  By pursuing neo liberal policies this amount stress can only get worse.

Conclusion

There is no material impediment to Australia adopting once again a large scale commitment to public housing only the Government’s priorities and its neo liberal agenda.  The Government’s commitment to the military or funding big business are some of the areas where resources can be extracted to house all Australians.

Make a submission to the NSW Housing Inquiry

Send this letter by February 26 in order to get the letter to the Committee by 28^th Feb.

copy and paste this item into a word document and send asap

The Director
Select Committee on Social, Public and Affordable Housing
Parliament House
Macquarie St
Sydney NSW 2000

Dear Committee Members,

I/we wish to make it clear to you that the right to live in decent, affordable housing is enshrined in the United Nation’s Declaration of Human Rights which says in Article 25: Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services…

I/we the undersigned believe that the situation in social and affordable housing in NSW is unacceptable.

With over 55,000 on the waiting list and a maintenance backlog of $330 million, the Government must act now to improve the situation in regard to housing.

The NSW Government must not rely only on tenant’s rents to pay for public housing.

The NSW Government must not cut the maintenance budget but increase it by $330 million.

The NSW Government must encourage the citizens of our state to pressure the Commonwealth to increase funding for housing from $0.8 bill to $2 billion

I/we support

·         A substantial increase in investment to expand public housing stock

·         subsidies to facilitate affordable housing

·         a caveat placed on affordable housing to prevent it from being sold at market rates

·         public housing to be supported by services including health, child minding, family, youth and job support

Name ___________________________________________

Address  _________________________________________

_________________________postcode ________________

Email  ___________________________________________

Phone  __________________________________________

Signature   ________________________________________

CPA statement on the death of Nelson Mandela

The Communist Party of Australia expresses its deepest regret at the passing of Comrade Nelson Mandela. This marks the end of the life of one of the greatest revolutionaries of the 20th century, who fought for freedom and against all forms of oppression in both South Africa and globally. His legacy will never die.

Our deepest condolences are extended to Ms Graca Machel, the entire Mandela family, the South African Communist Party, the ANC and the South African people.

We share the grief of the millions of workers, poor and oppressed, communists, democrats, socialists and others around the world who loved and admired him.

As the SACP says: “As part of the masses that make history, Comrade Mandela’s contribution in the struggle for freedom was located and steeled in the collective membership and leadership of our revolutionary national liberation movement as led by the ANC – for he was not an island. In Comrade Mandela we had a brave and courageous soldier, patriot and internationalist who, to borrow from Che Guevara, was a true revolutionary guided by great feelings of love for his people, an outstanding feature of all genuine people’s revolutionaries.”

With others we not only mourn Comrade Mandela’s death but also celebrate his life. We remember the inspiration of the Freedom Charter, the treason and Rivonia trials, the Free Mandela campaign and the outpouring of joy and hope when he was released from jail and elected as South Africa's first democrat president,

We also recognise and celebrate the anti-apartheid movement in Australia which drew together workers, trade unionists, communists, social democrats, people of faith and others into a mighty united force in support of the liberation struggle of the South African people. The determination and strength of this movement gives us an example for the movement that is required today to change the political landscape in Australia.

We celebrate the wisdom, integrity, dignity and humanity of the man known to all as Madiba, the man who was for a time a member of the South African Communist Party's central committee while heading Umkhonto We Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress, the man who showed such endurance and courage during years of incarceration, the man who led the country and ANC in the establishment of a new South Africa based on peace, reconciliation, democracy and built with the involvement of the mass of the people.

To honour the legacy of this inspiring leader and comrade, we rededicate ourselves to the world wide anti-imperialist struggle for real change, to the fight for peace not imperialist war, for an independent Australia not one subservient to an imperialist US, for sovereignty for the indigenous people, for workers and trade union rights, against all forms of inequality.

We also rededicate our Party to the struggle for socialism, as the only political and economic solution to the problems confronting humanity.