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The leaning to authoritarianism is probably because she opted heavily in favor of the proposition that the media-tart judges of Masterchef should be hung, drawn and quartered. And left to stew in their own jus.
"Those who would give up ESSENTIAL LIBERTY to purchase a little TEMPORARY SAFETY, deserve neither LIBERTY nor SAFETY"
Benjamin Franklin would have a fit if he was living in Australia.
Short-sighted populism again from hair-trigger jumpy NSW Labor, perfected by Bob Carr, chip chip chipping away at our essential liberties. (As a perfect example, Verity Firth just today dumped Iemma's and Della Bosca's idiot plan to fine and jail parents of truanting kids. A resounding chorus of "we told you so" from welfare and education groups is in order).
Back to Ferguson: couldn't the same result been achieved, without eroding all our civil liberties, by that other all-purpose impost on tenant's security of tenure, the policy of "relocating tenants for management purposes", which states "As a social housing landlord, Housing NSW has the right to ask any tenant to relocate to another suitable property, identified by Housing NSW, that meets their housing needs.", in other words, "anything goes" or rather "anyone goes if HNSW says they go".
3 comments:
This is one of the great challenges affecting public hosuing: Mum, Dad and four kids moved into a 4-bedroom Hosuing Commission house in Revesby back in the day, now there's only Mum left and "awwww, you can't ask an old lady to relocate to a flat", especially not as it's the flat where a) someone was dead for six months before anyone noticed or b) the place was smashed up by the pevious tenant.
The Housing Minister who works out how to efficiently reallocate resources without causing (to use a Prime Ministerial word) a shitstorm will be on the way to greatness.
Well, funny this subject should come up as Housing NSW is currently doing its darndest to relocate me for 'management purposes' for complaining about constant noise other residents are making in an internal lounge outside my front door. Meetings with microphones, musical recitals, even a religious service!! And the department says I am the one creating a disturbance by complaining about it! Hmmm. I've refused two other places they've offered me and now I'm being threatened with eviction. This is after waiting 10 years to get a place, and becoming homeless in the process. Oh! And I have a disability ...
They need to make "carrots" available to encourage people to volunteer for moving, before bringing out the "stick".
* Free removalists.
* Free disposal of surplus furniture
* Free cleanout labourers for half a day once the removalists are gone
* Rent at 15% for the first 2 years instead of the usual 25%.
* Group relocations (where you get together with all your other empty nest friends that are also in housing commission, all go together and say "we could theoretically be relocated, but we'd like to be relocated together", and get yourselves placed into separate flats in the same building/estate so you end up closer to your support network than under the status quo).
My mother would love a ground floor flat closer to friends and relatives in Riverwood, and her 2 bedroom townhouse in the Sutherland Shire would be way more suited to a young family with 1-2 kids than it is for her (too many stairs for someone with mobility issues). However, she's resisted the idea of moving because she fears losing her lifetime tenancy, and also, she doesn't want to risk being shifted into a bedsitter with 23 years of accumulated furniture and other stuff in the larger place.
In the complex of townhouses I grew up in, there are a few empty nesters. The lady in number 2 had been there for 2 years longer than we were. At the time she moved in she had a husband and 2 kids living there. They moved out in the first year. She's spent the following 24 years in a 3 bedroom townhouse ALONE. Sure, if housing commission do nothing they will probably get the place back in 5-10 years as she's not far out of the grave, but still... 24 years...
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