Community housing in Australia

The Rental Protection Fund Highlights Its Immediate Demand in First Official Report

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, October 31, 2023
Housing, Acquisition, Fear, Tenant, Social services, Environment, Community housing in Australia, Risk, Province, Fund, Property management

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 31, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, the Rental Protection Fund (the “Fund”) unveiled its inaugural Impact Report to the Province.

Key Points: 
  • VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 31, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, the Rental Protection Fund (the “Fund”) unveiled its inaugural Impact Report to the Province.
  • This report highlights the immediate demand for the community-led preservation of existing, at-risk rental housing across British Columbia and summarizes the considerable progress made toward this goal to date.
  • Since opening applications in July 2023, the Rental Protection Fund has received more than 70 applications from the community housing sector, spotlighting the overwhelming demand for the Fund’s services.
  • The Rental Protection Fund has a mandate to deploy the $500 million to secure 2,000+ units over three years.

Many claim Australia’s longest-running Indigenous body failed. Here’s why that’s wrong

Retrieved on: 
Monday, July 24, 2023
CDEP, Employment, Legislation, Failure, Education, National Audit Office (United Kingdom), Aborigine, Policy, Public policy, Human, National Library of Australia, Government, Community housing in Australia, Human voice, ATSIC, Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs, Committee, CHIP, National library, Social justice, Capacity building, Time, National Aboriginal Conference, Water, Commonwealth Grants Commission, Community Development Employment Projects, Program, Federation, Health, Conference, Whaling, Risk management, Pharmaceutical industry, Commonwealth

The Voice to parliament, if established, would not be the first Indigenous advisory body in Australia’s history.

Key Points: 
  • The Voice to parliament, if established, would not be the first Indigenous advisory body in Australia’s history.
  • In 1973, Gough Whitlam established the National Aboriginal Consultative Committee, which was superseded by Malcolm Fraser’s National Aboriginal Conference in 1978.

What was ATSIC?

    • ATSIC opened its doors as an independent statutory authority in 1990, following legislation passed by the Hawke government in 1989.
    • According to then Minister for Aboriginal Affairs Gerry Hand, it was recognition of Indigenous aspirations to be involved in the decision-making processes of government.
    • It was innovative because it ran programs and delivered services in addition to providing advice.

What did ATSIC do?

    • This included Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) which, by 2003, employed 35,000 people in 270 projects, as well as the Community Housing and Infrastructure Program (CHIP).
    • It supported and seeded other programs, including in areas such as sport, the arts, repatriation, legal aid, and revival of languages.
    • In 1993, ATSIC led the Indigenous vanguard in defence of native title, clawing it back from total extinguishment.

Misconceptions

    • At the time, and since, misconceptions about ATSIC’s funding have prevailed.
    • As a supplementary funding body, intended to augment federal, state and territory funding, it administered less than 50% of the total federal government budget for Indigenous affairs.
    • From 1990-2000 it had ten clear audits, on occasion earning the praise of the National Audit Office.

Governments failed, not ATSIC

    • A 1994 evaluation of the National Health Strategy found that ATSIC was a convenient scapegoat for governments’ failure to deliver.
    • The Howard government’s 2003 report into ATSIC didn’t advocate abolishing it, but did point to the limitations of funding services through mainstream agencies:
      Time and again ATSIC had been used as a scapegoat for poor Indigenous affairs outcomes […] many mainstream services and program providers avoid accountability, preferring to leave the impression that ATSIC is at fault.
    • Time and again ATSIC had been used as a scapegoat for poor Indigenous affairs outcomes […] many mainstream services and program providers avoid accountability, preferring to leave the impression that ATSIC is at fault.

The Voice is not ATSIC


    The Voice will not be another ATSIC. It won’t run programs or deliver services, nor will it have a budget to administer. This means it can’t be scapegoated for policy failure. However, ATSIC demonstrated the importance of an Indigenous voice in the administrative mix, and it did meet expectations. Perhaps we need to take seriously ATSIC’s biggest lesson: the need for governments to be accountable and meet theirs.