National Cabinet Backs Landlords, CFMEU Campaign Watered Down, Nurses and Healthcare Workers Dudded: Red Report Back 7.8.23 - 21.8.23
National Cabinet Backs Landlords, Abandons Public Housing
Last fortnight, the leaders of Australia’s states and territories came together for the National Cabinet Meeting, marking the first time that the Labor-dominated body has met after recent state elections. The meeting demonstrated all the spinelessness of factionalism within the modern ALP, and the merging together of left and right within modern Labor in all but name.
One of the main outcomes of the meeting was the announcement of the National Planning Reform Blueprint.
The Blueprint pledges to build 200,000 additional homes, over the original target of 1 million, over the next five years. Accompanying the announcement is a $3.5 billion incentives package for states and territories to deliver the homes, centred on the New Home Bonus that gives states and territories $15,000 for each of the extra 200,000 homes delivered.
Additionally, the National Cabinet unveiled the Housing Support Program that promises $500 million in funding for state and local governments that fast-track planning reforms and connect services to new housing developments. This incentive seeks to address the density restrictions that prevent construction in established suburbs. The basis for these changes comes from the Grattan Institute’s research, which claims that, if built, the extra homes could reduce rents by 4% from what they otherwise would have been, saving renters $8 billion over the first five years.
The second part of the Blueprint purportedly focuses on better and nationally consistent rights for renters. These plans state that the government wishes to address the insecurity of current rental rules, by shifting from no-grounds evictions to ‘genuinely reasonable grounds for eviction’. Other half-baked promises are a ‘move towards’ a national standard of one rent increase per year for existing tenants (with no limit on the increase), and to ‘phase in’ minimum quality standards for rental properties. As most readers would be aware, many of these promises are already underway in one form or another, and require far more work to address the material conditions confronting renters.
Characterising the meeting is the vast inadequacy of the solutions put forward. As Joel Dignam, executive of Better Renting said in response ‘what national cabinet is offering today is a terrible offering, and very little of it’. Rather than commit to the outright funding of public housing that would provide long-term, quality housing to those suffering from housing stress, the government has once again prioritised the interests of landlords, developers and their mates.
Always eager to make their modest actions seem significant, Albanese wrote in his foreword to the platform “I’m proud of what we have achieved together so far, but it is just the beginning. Maintaining the momentum we have built is an important part of the responsibility and privilege of forming Government.” He reinforced his prioritisation of Labor’s electoral success by stating "it is my deep hope that this is a long-term Labor government because real, enduring reforms that change a country for the better take time.”
In one sweep, Albanese highlights how Labor cares more about its electoral viability with landlords and big business rather than the material needs of the working majority in this country. National Cabinet refuses to address the issue; declining to fund public housing and maintaining pro-landlord benefits, such as those around negative gearing and corporate gains tax concessions, that this year alone places $39 billion in taxpayer money back into the pockets of landlords
The failure to mention public housing, and solely emphasising social and affordable housing, is symptomatic of Labor’s pro-landlord agenda that seeks to fully privatise housing and leave workers to suffer at the hands of the private market. The Blueprint’s ‘solutions’ are dependent almost entirely on the private sector to increase and oversee production of housing, and bypassess the root issues behind the housing crisis. The additional houses built under Albanese’s plan, subsidised at public expense, will go on the market only to be snapped up by wealthy individual and corporate landlords to further speculate on – changing nothing for struggling, working class renters.
What Australia needs is a national plan based on consultation with workers, that listens to the feedback of workers and housing professionals and that addresses the needs of the workers who are suffering as the housing crisis deepens. Recent studies show that 88% of people agree that the federal government should spend more money to directly build affordable housing, and 72% support the introduction of rent caps in their state or territory. Yet, Labor continues to gamble billions on the stock market and the military industrial complex rather than directly funding public housing.
We are not surprised, and we are not impressed. We see these landlord politicians for what they are - enemies of the working people who will lie, cheat and deceive to maintain their privileges. Albanese may have grown up in public housing, but he is forcing generations into poverty by demolishing the very institution that provided him opportunity. As with the majority of these hypocrite politicians, there are rules for them, and there are rules for us. It is time we started playing by our own rules.
The full announcement from National Cabinet can be found here:
CFMEU’s Housing Campaign Stumbles After ALP Conference
Following on from the CFMEU’s campaign launch of the super profits tax raised in last fortnight’s Red Report Back, there have been further developments as the “End the housing crisis, tax super profits” campaign was taken to the ALP’s Conference this week. Despite organising three marches across the Brisbane CBD to the steps of the conference, the campaign was quickly silenced in the pro-status quo atmosphere of the conference. Unsurprisingly, this has led to the proposal being further watered down to conform to the ALP’s electoral interests and pro-landlord policies.
CFMEU National Secretary Zach Smith summed up the motive behind the campaign in saying “a super profits tax is the fairest way to raise the billions of dollars needed to guarantee every Australian has the basic right of shelter”. He emphasised the need for action to address the housing crisis, saying "there is no issue more pressing in our economy and society than the gap in affordable housing," adding that a “super profits tax is the clearest way to raise the money necessary to build the homes we need."
While we acknowledge the CFMEU’s efforts to address the housing crisis, we argue there are other ways to raise these funds which more directly attack the roots of the crisis. For example, legislative changes that do away with tax privileges around negative gearing and capital gains tax would be a key move to address the system that overwhelmingly favours the interests of landlords. This would not only free up more homes, and land to be used for public housing, but also inject billions back into the public purse to be used to fund further construction.
Smith went on to highlight the failure of neoliberal, capitalist policies in addressing the situation, stating "we've been told since the '80s to sit back and let the markets decide ... this is nonsense, the state has a role to play and it must play this role." While this is true, we must note that these state-based solutions must be focused on building and maintaining government-owned public housing, rather than funnelling government money into ‘affordable’ housing that is overseen by notorious NGO housing providers and prices out the majority of working people.
Despite the union's criticisms of the inadequacies of the neoliberal system, the union’s proposal was nevertheless watered down significantly by Labor. The final agreement passed by the ALP does not provide guarantees, but rather seeks to aim to "increase government investment in social and affordable housing with funding from a progressive and sustainable tax system, including corporate tax reform".
In a joint statement, Labor for Housing and Zach Smith from the CFMEU said the announcement from National Cabinet is “welcome and is to be congratulated”, and that the decisions reached showed “the Albanese Government has clearly listened to the CFMEU and Labor for Housing’s calls”. He also went so far as to praise Labor’s “strong rental reforms, particularly no fault evictions, that will make a significant difference to the rights of renters”.
When confronted with Labor’s stonewalling, all workers and the unions representing them, must continue to fight for further changes. Recent campaigns to defend public housing, such as those of Glebe and Waterloo in Sydney and Barak Beacon in Melbourne, have been met with radio silence or dismissal from those purporting to care about the issue. But we must continue to strive for the real solution - 100% government-owned, quality public housing.
The solutions to the housing crisis are not to be found with those who are too afraid or self-interested to rock the boat and threaten the pro-landlord status quo. We cannot wait years and decades for half-promises to implement small changes to come true. We need to take the fight to the streets, we need to scream until our voices are heard and we need to call out those who seek to gloss over the issue with empty phrases and tokenistic imagery. Rank-and-file members must push our unions to carry forward these demands.
For readers who may consider this to be too critical, we ask that you keep this in mind. While parties and other organisations continue to water down their demands and policies to appease landlords, thousands remain trapped in domestic violence households. While politicians are back and forthing in parliament, thousands are sleeping on the streets or in cars. While developers are guaranteed protections from Labor and the Coalition, millions of workers are struggling to afford shelter, let alone food and utilities. People are dying and suffering because the current political system prioritises the housing profiteering over the right to shelter of workers. We will not accept this, no worker should, and we will do all we can to attack this. Say yes to public housing. Say no to bullshit half-measures.
Police Harassment of Disrupt Burrup Hub Activists Intensifies
Environmental activist Emil Davey was driving through City Beach, a suburb of Perth, when a van raced in front of his car and slammed on the breaks. Davey watched in horror as a man jumped from the van, pulled a gun, and pointed it at him through the windshield. You'd be forgiven for assuming Davey was about to be robbed or kidnapped by armed criminals - but in fact, it was WA police driving an unmarked van and dressed in plain clothes. They searched his van and released him without charge.
Police claim they simply became suspicious of the van and investigated. The officer who drew his weapon stated he did so because he 'perceived a threat' - a beautifully vague placeholder alibi. This is an obviously false attempt to paint intimidation of an activist as a simple coincidence.
Emil Davey is a member of the climate-defender group Disrupt Burrup Hub (DBH), which has been facing police repression for months. Police raided Davey’s home twice in the month before this incident, part of a string of such raids aimed at members of DBH. On top of homes and cars being raided, members of the group have also faced surveillance and indefinite seizures of phones and laptops, plus charges if they refused to unlock them for police. The day after his encounter with police, a DBH member, along with two members of the media, were ambushed by dozens of counter-terror police laying in wait for them to carry out a non-violent protest outside the home of Woodside CEO Meg O'Neill - an action that had not been publicly announced.
Given all this, it's very unlikely the police simply 'became suspicious' of a car and pulled a gun to respond to a perceived threat. Much more likely is that they knew exactly who was in that car and that the threat of violence was an intentional scare tactic.
We can see a pattern of extreme responses to environmental activism nation-wide. In April 2022, NSW passed laws targeting non-violent protest and created a new police unit called NSW Police Strike Force, designed specifically to deal with climate defenders. Following this, Victoria, Tasmania, and South Australia have all passed similar laws.
Surveillance of activists follows a long-established pattern too. A recent investigation in Victoria found that VicForests hired a private investigator to spy on environmental activists and a professor - and before that, there was the SpyCops fiasco in the UK, police infiltration of animal rights, Reclaim the Streets, and anti-coal movements, to name just a few examples.
The bottom line is: we can't afford to be naive about the police under capitalism. When push comes to shove, they are enemies of the working class – and corporations and the state won't hesitate to unleash their repressive power against those fighting for change. If they will go this hard against small groups of young people carrying out innocuous protests, how much harder will they come down if the working class as a whole gets organised and starts taking real militant action on climate change and other issues?
Black Death in Custody Highlights Contradictions of Colonial State
·Content Warning: This story contains the name and details of a deceased First Nations person that some readers may find distressing.
The ALP likes to talk a big game about First Nations rights, but on the ground it's business as usual with more avoidable Indigenous deaths in custody. Since the damning Royal Commission into Indigenous deaths in custody back in 1991, little has changed. A stark reminder of this came recently when Wiradjuri man TJ Dennis killed himself in a NSW's Silverwater Correctional Complex.
Dennis was transferred to Silverwater from Alexander Machonochie Detention Centre (AMC) where he had been held previously. He'd asked for a transfer because he feared for his welfare – and he had good reason to worry. Correctional officers at AMC had depicted TJ being hung in front of cheering First Fleet colonists as part of a game there, an image later distributed around the prison. Just as with officers who kill Indigenous prisoners, no one involved in this incident faced any consequences - except the victim. Dennis had also attempted suicide multiple times while held at AMC. Taking all this into account, the health service at the prison recommended Dennis be transferred to a specialist forensic mental health facility - this very reasonable advice was ignored and he was instead sent to Silverwater where he killed himself.
This suicide was preventable and the fact that health advice was ignored is emblematic of how the Australian 'justice' system, and the Australian state at large, treats Indigenous people as second-class citizens. The death of TJ Dennis echoes another suicide from July, that of Menang man Donald Junior in WA. Donald ended his life 18 months after being released from prison with nothing but a brochure listing support services. This is about as much support as any prisoner in Australia gets on leaving jail, but considering the systemic issues faced by Indigenous people the lack of support is even more galling.
This lack of any real action to prevent Indigenous deaths in custody should come as no surprise. The government of the day waxes lyrical to Indigenous communities, but rarely gives anything of substance - unless its harsher laws and more police. Things as simple as listening to a professional health service's recommendations for a traumatised prisoner or providing follow-up support for an ex-con are totally ignored. Meanwhile, those who traumatise, neglect, brutalise, and kill prisoners go about their business on a state salary – not one person has faced conviction for any of the 516 Indigenous deaths in custody since 1991.
The ALP is currently pouring millions of dollars into promoting its Indigenous Voice to Parliament as the latest state band-aid for these problems. But Albanese outright says he opposes any kind of reparations and the Voice itself contains no provisions for land rights, funding, or any concrete solutions to the real problems people are facing. Words, words, and more words but no resources!
The voices of struggling Indigenous people in Australia have been crying out for 200 years - the colonial government always ignored them in the past, why would they start listening now? If we want to see real change on these issues, we need to come together and fight for the end of the colonial system as part of a socialist future. Our thoughts and condolences go out the family of Mr. Dennis and all those who have lost someone in custody.
From the Picket Line
Health Services Union Votes to Accept Labor’s Pay Offer
Following an outspoken industrial campaign against the Minns Labor government in New South Wales, the Health Services Union recently accepted an offer put forward by the ALP after meetings with the Health Minister Ryan Park and Industrial Relations Minister Sophie Cotsis. The offer from the government came after the union threatened industrial action, and will see health sector workers receive a pay increase of $3,500, with 54% of members voting in favour of the offer.
While this is being sold as a significant victory, the deal must be broken down and analysed beyond its surface value. Initially, the NSW government had offered a 4% increase to all public sector workers. With the one off payment of $3,500, the HSU are framing it as a victory that will see some of the lowest-paid health sector workers receive an 8.5% pay rise. However, as has happened in recent negotiations in other industries, poorer workers facing a growing cost-of-living crisis were cornered to accept a much needed boost.
Member dissatisfaction with the meagre offers from the Labor government were further highlighted when they voted to continue industrial action over the Labor Party backtracking on an election promise to give health sector workers 100% of salary packaging benefits. After the election, Labor shifted this in the latest agreement to a slight increase from 50% to 60%.
This is just one example of how the recently elected Minns Labor government continues to ignore the needs and demands of the workers who keep the state running. The government continues to offer a subpar 4% wage boost, paired with a .5% increase to superannuation contributions for all government workers. Unsatisfied, unions such as the NSW Australian Paramedics Association have taken industrial action over, to quote Secretary Alan O’Riordan, “insultingly low” wage negotiations.
The fact remains that with inflation currently over 7%, the offers from the Labor government amount to a real wage cut to our most important frontline workers. This back-and-forth and compromise is now commonplace in the Australian industrial relations game. Labor uses unions and members to get elected, making a slew of promises for improvements. Upon election, Labor retreats from previous promises, citing the priority of ‘responsible economic management’ and ‘fiscal responsibility’. Labor directs union leadership to quash member’s dissent and to manufacture consent for weak offers, and so the cycle continues until the capitalist system permits the next round of negotiations in a year or more’s time.
Workers must take note of the intricacies in how these industrial relations struggles play out. We must note the tactics and strategies that guide the reactionary leaders in Labor, who care more about their electoral prospects than the wellbeing of workers. We must look past the militant rhetoric of union leadership, and instead analyse the motives behind their politicking, seeing how they work to ingratiate themselves with both the politicians and members, while selling out workers to protect the politicians.
Admittedly, this is not the case everywhere, with outstanding union leaders and members present all across the country. However, the labour aristocracy has grown bloated and entrenched, and that is because many prioritise their own power, and depend on the ALP to maintain it. They have, do and will continue to sacrifice the needs of workers to maintain their power and stay in favour. We have a duty to educate our fellow members and workers on how the game is played, and how we can fight back to protect each other.
NSW Nurses and Midwives Short-Changed by Government
The ongoing struggle between members of the NSWMA and the NSW state Labor government has taken a new turn. This week, the membership of the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association voted on, and passed, a motion to accept the 4 per cent pay rise that was so ‘generously offered’ to the union.
The vote was far from consensus, with over 40% of workers in the union voting against the motion, highlighting how the staunch rank-and-file membership have burnt out due to the growing cost-of-living crisis.
The NSW government has consistently failed to address the material conditions on the ground in our hospitals across the state, failing to implement many of the demands pursued by the NSWNMA including:
- Patient-to-staff ratios
- Staffing systems that address burnout and workload.
- Safety and wellbeing.
All of these concerns have been exacerbated by material conditions since the pandemic, and both the previous Coalition government and the current Labor government have refused to address these demands in any meaningful way.
A 4% rise is woefully inadequate, a fact that most nurses and midwives are aware of, despite the passed motion. Workers are desperately trying to stay afloat amidst the deteriorating conditions and cost-of-living crisis facing all.
The NSWNMA's Assistant General Secretary, Michael Whaites, was quoted as stating “This offer fell short of our 2023 award claim and, for many, accepting the one-year offer was a reflection that they will take the 4 per cent now, but more is needed. The vote on this pay offer has been close, and it reflects the economic and political environment we find ourselves in.”
The reality is that as capitalism continues to wreak havoc amongst every sector of the working class, vital workers such as nurses and midwives will be left behind. As our nurses and midwives continue to be ignored, overworked, under-ratioed, and underpaid – we, and our loved ones - will suffer the most when we need that care.
We must continue to elevate the voices of rank-and-file workers, and support their unions as they battle against neoliberal governments of all persuasions. It has been shown repeatedly that the industrial relations institutions of the capitalist state will not give us the justice we demand and deserve. We must support each other, and build our networks of solidarity to take what we will not be given.