In fact, Australia Institute research shows that in Australia, the proportion of social housing is estimated to have fallen from over 7% of all housing in Australia in the early 1990s down to just 4% in 2019. That proportion needs now to be ramped up to double digits.

Without a commitment to build more social housing and measures to help renters, Australia’s housing crisis will only get worse.

Speakers:

Maiy Azize is the spokesperson for Everybody’s Home, a campaign to fix Australia’s housing crisis. Everybody’s Home is made up of 400 housing and welfare organisations, and has over 40,000 supporters across the country. Maiy is also the Deputy Director of Anglicare Australia and a Fellow at the Australian Basic Income Lab. She is the author of many research projects and reports, including Asking Those Who Know and Five Ideas Australia Needs Now.

Greg Jericho is a Policy Director at the Centre for Future Work. Greg also writes a weekly column on economics and politics for Guardian Australia – a position he has held since 2013. In 2016 he won the Walkley Award for Commentary, Analysis, Opinion & Critique, and in 2018 he was a Walkley Award finalist with Gareth Hutchens for their report on the crisis of wages in Australia in the Best Industrial Reporting category. He has also written for ABC, SBS and Meanjin with a focus on policy and journalism coverage of Australian politics. In 2012 his book The Rise of the Fifth Estate: Social Media and Blogging in Australian Politics was published by Scribe. He is passionate about a range of sports and is well known for his twitter @grogsgamut.

Joel Dignam is the Executive Director of Better Renting. He has a background in organising and campaigning across non-profits, unions, and electoral politics. Joel has studied Leadership, Organizing and Action with Professor Marshall Ganz through Harvard’s Kennedy School of Executive Education, and he holds an Advanced Diploma of Management from the Groupwork Institute of Australia. In 2022 he completed a Churchill Fellowship through the US and the UK, learning from tenant movement organisations.