Over the past couple of years, more of my work and activism has been orientated toward being a voice for the current housing crisis in Australia.
This is partly informed by my work in population sustainability and degrowth, as the current housing crisis is a symptom of the growth based agenda of our economic and political systems, butting heads against the realities of limits to growth.
My position is also partly informed by my past involvement within resident actions groups, as it has become clear that property developers have enjoyed too much state capture of political decision making when it comes to urban planning. Specifically, they are building substandard suburbs and high rise development for the purposes of investment and speculation, as opposed to liveable, walkable neighbourhoods.
Lastly, my own history as a tenant in the rental sector, including unaddressed threats to my health and safety, has driven me to work toward much needed policy change. Currently, I am working alongside the office of my local MP in Western Australia to drive legislative change for tenants who may have risk to asbestos exposure, and for landlords and real estate agents to take more responsibility. If you have had any personal experience in regard to tenancy and exposure to asbestos or other hazards which were not adequately addressed, I want to hear from you.
Below is a small sample of contributions I had made toward change to the housing crisis sector.
The housing crisis is a population growth crisis: Briefing Note
A nine page report that I co-authored with Dr. Jane O’Sullivan and commissioned by Sustainable Population Australia. As far as I am aware, this is the only detailed report in the literature that properly explores the DEMAND side factors that contribute toward the housing crisis.
This report is part of Sustainable Population Australia’s current Housing Crisis campaign. I strongly recommend checking out the landing page. It provides options to take further action, such as sending a pro-forma letter to your Lower House MP, or signing SPA’s position statement.
Other written work
I wrote a lengthy article in Medium “A Year in Asbestosville: A Farcical Tale of Systemic Failure”. It is a summary of my personal journey in moving to Western Australia, being exposed to potential friable asbestos in my rental home and my attempts to seek help from the system, which was almost Kafka-esque in its absurdity. This article has since inspired interest from my local MP and state asbestos disease advocacy groups, so this is one positive that come out of this ordeal!
I collaborated with my PGAP co-host Mark Allen toward writing “Working towards an asbestos-free future” for Independent Australia. This article is more concise and details some prescriptive system changes.
Also published by IA, “Population growth fuelling the housing crisis fire” summarises many of my core arguments on the housing crisis.
While I am lucky enough to have built my home just outside of Albany, the process of trying to build environmentally with a project builder has been - shall we say - interesting. An account of my experiences can be read at the Post-Growth Australia Podcast blog here: “Building a house in the 2020s (and other fun things!)” I hope this offers some words of advice for anyone planning to build.
Podcasts
Post-Growth Australia Podcast dedicated a whole episode, “Welcome to Asbestoville” in which I detailed my misadventures with my co-host Mark Allen.
I also shared my challenges and solutions overseas, as a guest on a recent episode of “This Sustainable Life, Solve for Nature”.
For a unique Degrowth perspective on solving our housing crisis, my podcast’s “A Public Housing Revolution for Degrowth with Dr Alex Baumann” is currently the most listened to and talked about episode in PGAP’s history. I highly recommend having a listen.