"Labor for Affordable Housing" hits the road.

Yes, you guessed it. "Diary of a Desperate Houso" is just another front for the Labor Party to continue embarassing its own kind.

No seriously, DH forced herself to start attending ALP meetings out of a sense of civic duty, after the last federal election debacle. Not because she's a True Believer, but because it's a worry when what is after all the country's major political party has practically no membership and is ripe for being white-anted by the seedy end of town.

So anyway she got together with some other like-minded people she met there, all on low income, all public or private renters, to do something about the disastrous state of housing in this country. L4AH is the result, and it's intended to be a non-factional ginger group within the ALP. L4AH had its first public forum at Glebe last Sunday, and the Gang of 4 or so was well pleased with this first effort with a good turnout, and a vibrant atmosphere.

The idea behind L4AH is to keep affordable housing and the needs of low income folks highly visible on Labors' agenda, and to empower local communities to do it for themselves, And we wanna have fun too. Not just talkfests, but we want our events to be a party kind of Party atmosphere, to have young local performers show the community what they can do, we want to hear the babble of kids' voices in the background, we want people to have a bite to eat after and stay around to chat.

DH has just read The Latham Diaries and thinks it's great. Wasn't nearly as purple as the press made out, just a man after her own heart who says what he thinks in colorful language he's comfortable with. She agrees with Mark Latham's ideas about community empowerment. L4AH is part of the same social changes that shaped Mark's philosophy. Communities have to reclaim their sense of "can-do", and not be intimidated by the jargon of bureacratic power-hoarders.