Max Chandler-Mather is federal MP for Griffith and the Australian Greens’ housing and homelessness spokesperson.
Anthony Albanese’s Labor government is accusing Greens MPs of standing in the way of solutions to the housing crisis. But under Labor’s plan, the proportion of public housing will drop while rents keep rising.
In Australia, decades of neoliberal policies have crippled our capacity to respond to public health crises like COVID.
Many people think of privatization as a policy of conservative parties. In Australia, however, it was Paul Keating’s Labor that initiated a gigantic fire sale of public assets, setting in motion a process that made billions for private companies at the expense of everyone else.
In Queensland’s recent state election, the Australian Greens doubled their representation — proving that a clear left-wing platform, backed up by patient organizing, can build an alternative to neoliberal politics.
After the Australian Labor Party’s 2019 election loss to the Liberals, the commentariat bemoaned Queensland’s seemingly entrenched conservatism. Yet as a state election approaches, the experience of campaigners and volunteers on the ground tells a different story.