Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to begin my contribution this afternoon by thanking each and every one of the Greens volunteers across the breadth of this ancient continent who have come together in the last months to be part of our collective Green movement's housing campaign. From Queensland to Western Australia, the ACT, Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and everywhere in between, people have come together, joined together and organised together out of a belief that what is needed from those in positions of power in response to the housing crisis is real action. They have been rewarded by an incredible victory this week. The government, after spending month after month telling the Greens here in parliament and telling Greens in the community that there was no more money to be spent on housing, was forced to cough up $2 billion to be invested in social and community housing, with tens of millions for WA alone.

Every single one of those dollars belongs to the campaigners, the organisers and the community members who joined our Greens campaign, our community grassroots effort, to put that pressure on the government to deliver more for the community. They have demonstrated by their commitment, their action and their collaboration that pressure works, that people power works and that, when those in positions of power say, 'That's all there is,' it is not up to the community to simply accept it. If it isn't good enough, people can band together, work together and push to get what is needed. They have demonstrated that grassroots activism in Australia remains strong and powerful.

I have been part of so many of these events and actions, and it has been a joy to be part of this campaign. When I have gone to events, whether they be in Perth, Fremantle, across Vic Park in Swan or many places in between, what has brought people together is a shared lived experience of the housing crisis. There have been people who have lived on the streets or who are fearful of being forced back there. There were people who are struggling with the reality of mortgages they're not sure how to repay now, thinking desperately that they might be plunged onto decades long public housing waiting lists or are, in fact, in that situation right now. To those folks in those particular situations, the announcement that was extracted from the government is a real win.

There remains more work to do, because I am also really aware that as part of this campaign there are also many folks, representing the one-third of Australians who rent, who were driven to be part of the campaign because they understand from their lived experience the urgent need to freeze rents immediately and to cap them in the long term—to make unlimited rent increases illegal in this country. They are here as part of this campaign because they live in East Perth, where the median weekly rent is now $800, and $200 of that has come in the last year alone. If you live in Joondanna, the price of your rent has gone up by 17 per cent. If you live in Dianella, it's gone up by 15 per cent. In the city of Stirling, the weekly rent is $700. It has gone up 120 bucks a week in the last year alone. That is not sustainable. That is not okay. That is why the community are pushing their MPs to deliver a national rent cap and freeze.

What has the reaction been of people like the member for Perth? It's not been to engage with their communities or to go to the Prime Minister and say: 'Hang on; we probably should use our federal power here. We probably should engage and negotiate.' No. He's gone on TV trying to sell this ridiculous plan that the government had been putting forward as something that is worthwhile and as something that should have just been supported. It's not good enough. His community will keep pushing him, and the Greens will continue to work with the community.