Four challenges for Australia: Address to CCA Conference

Last night (10 October), I gave a short address to the Community Colleges Australia (CCA) Sydney Conference dinner, during which I shared my intellectual and professional journey since leaving CCA in July. I concluded that Australia faces four distinct but inter-related challenges, and commented on how not-for-profit (NFP) community education providers can help address those challenges.

1.      We have a growing challenge of inequality, with “the bottom 90% of Australians receiving just 7% of economic growth per person since 2009, while the top 10% of income earners reaping 93% of the benefits,” a radical reversal of the trends from 1950 to 2009. The good news is that Australia’s community education providers and the vocational education system generally is well-positioned to reach and engage vulnerable and disadvantaged learners: people with low incomes and little wealth, young people, older workers, First Nations peoples, migrants and refugees, people with a disability, and residents of rural and regional areas. Community and vocational providers can thus become major players in tackling Australian inequality.

2.      We have a challenge of housing affordability, with sky-high rental and purchase prices and the highest mortgage stress in the world, pushing people of reasonable means out of the housing market and exacerbating homelessness. Many factors drive this housing demand. The good news is the Commonwealth, Victorian and other governments have recently committed more funding and resources to development of social and public housing units, after years without growth. Community education providers can do a lot to support and partner with social housing providers: public (government) providers and not-for-profit community housing sector to deliver place-based education and training to residents.

3.      We have a climate change challenge. Last month, Australia recorded its driest September in history. New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia had their hottest September days ever, and the months of June, July and August 2023 were the hottest months ever on earth. The Australian Climate Council warns we have “crossed a tipping point for Australia’s temperate broadleaf and mixed forests when a critical level of heat or drought triggers a massive, devastating event.” Aside from the obvious – like the Byron Community College sustainability initiatives and Permaculture training – there is much community education providers sector can do to bring local community responses to help address the climate crisis through both mitigation and adaptation.

4.      Finally, we have an Indigenous reconciliation challenge. This coming Saturday, 14 October, Australia votes on the Voice to Parliament. What happens if the Voice fails? How do community education providers – and other NFP organisations – contribute to what will be a long and hard road of continued reconciliation with First Nations peoples? Last night, I was thrilled to listen to Mick Gooda, former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, in conversation with my CCA successor, Russ Hawkins. The community education sector is uniquely positioned to contribute to this process, with the highest percentage of Indigenous students of any educational sector in Australia.

(below: Mick Gooda on right talks with Russ Hawkins, left)

Social housing is about to expand but residents also need community support services

The cost, supply and availability of housing has engaged Australians as few other current issues have this year, a situation described as “both devilishly complex and capable of unleashing the nation’s darker angels.” A major increase in the supply of social housing has been proposed but is only the beginning of addressing affordable housing challenges.

Housing purchase remains stubbornly high, reflecting an increasingly “broken system”; rents have risen to unprecedented levels, driven by post-pandemic overseas migration, limited stock and steadily fewer people living in each residence. Access to housing now equates to how wealthy – or not – you are: “the disparity in wealth between who owns and who rents … defines Australia’s increasing inequality,” says Tone Wheeler. It’s also become highly political, with the one-third of Australians who rent increasingly leaning towards one political party (The Greens), especially in inner city electorates.

For these reasons, I optimistically predict we will soon see agreement – hopefully with increased support and direct funding – on the Albanese Government’s proposed $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, which plans to fund 30,000 new social and affordable housing properties in its first five years. But this will only go part-way to dealing with “one of the most serious housing crises in our history,” according to the construction union’s Zach Smith.

It’s about time. The national social housing waiting list has topped 175,000 (with at least another 250,000 eligible but not on the lists) – necessitating a wait of more than 10 years in some locations. Australia’s investment in social housing has lagged significantly for at least two decades. In mid-2022, Australia had around 443,000 social housing dwellings, but only 36,200 dwellings had been added in the 16-year period from 2006 (see Table 1 below, from AIHW). This represented a 10% increase, compared to 28.5% Australian population growth. Not surprisingly, “the proportion of people in social housing … fell by a fifth, from 4.6% to 3.7%, over the past decade.”

Social housing has also been changing, with state and territory public (government) housing dwelling numbers decreasing each year, shifting to an expanded not-for-profit community-managed housing sector.

Housing, construction and renter advocates are correct – our social housing needs are desperate. So what happens when Australia finally starts to build more social housing?

It won’t fix everything, because residents of social housing are some of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged Australians, often beset by social problems and higher crime rates: “Social housing has undergone a ‘residualisation’ process where housing has been increasingly allocated to those with complex issues … those with physical and psychosocial disability, who are at risk of homelessness, or are on very low incomes …. This has created an ‘ambulance service’ provision addressing housing of the most vulnerable in society.”

These social challenges underscore the necessity of parallel investments in social housing management and integrated community services for residents. The social arrangements of medium- and high-density housing can be very complex, even more so when large estates are owned and operated by governments: witness the July 2020 Melbourne high-rise public housing tower COVID-19 lockdowns, when “3,000 residents confined to their flats for 5 days,” with residents of one tower locked down for 14 days.

Although strata management has professionalised in recent years, Australia has not developed a tradition of higher density living and housing management. Public and non-profit housing managers are challenged by balancing cost considerations and resident needs. Researchers point out that “lower income and vulnerable residents generally have less choice and less influence than other socio-economic groups, are disproportionately affected by the challenges of higher density living…. and Australian governments have not adequately acknowledged and addressed the impact of higher density housing on lower income and vulnerable residents.”

There has been a progressive shift from large-scale public housing estates to smaller, diverse community housing providers (including cooperatives), from one-tenth of social housing units in 2006 to one-third in 2022. The Community Housing Industry Association of NSW now has 41 members operating around the state; community-owned housing may have received little public fanfare, but has started to change the social housing landscape for the better. Community housing providers have shown their ability to refine “housing management activities and procedures to better support their tenants”, expand place-based management activities and capably support the value and importance of community development.

Social housing tenants – be it in a Melbourne public high-rise or a lower density country town – need integrated community and social support, ideally including education, training and other skills opportunities. Commitment to new construction is necessary, but only the first step on the long road to a successful social housing policy that meets the needs of vulnerable and disadvantaged Australians and ensures our success as a nation.