This speech was given by Blake Ansell, a high school student, and Anti-Poverty Network SA member, to our JobSeeker Rally, on May 21, 2023.
“Although I don’t acutely remember how I came to be in public housing, I remember my mother trying her hardest to find a place to house our family of 7 and constantly being knocked back and told that there weren’t any accessible houses at the time.
It wasn’t until we found ourselves as victims of domestic violence that the housing commission actually decided to solve our problem. It took months of my mother urgently pleading to the housing commission to find us a better house we could afford, to which they only responded to our situation when it reached a boiling point and we weren’t safe.
This was in 2011. Today, the availability of public housing has decreased immensely. There are 17,000 people on the waiting list for public housing with 4000 of them in urgent need to be housed and the government has responded by planning to build a lacklustre 400 homes.
This is not enough: how many families are out there whose safety is at stake, that just can’t find a place to live? How many students, especially in the northern Suburbs, around Elizabeth, Munno Para, and Smithfield, are trying to study full time but just can’t, due to their tumultuous living situation?
When Albanese delivered his victory speech he promised to no one being left behind, and no one being held back.
Well 1 year later Labor’s grand achievements have only helped those with the means to succeed, for the thousands of people on JobSeeker and Youth Allowance. however, their lives have not improved and have only gotten worse.
The Labor government’s increase to JobSeeker of $2.85 a day is worse than the Liberals’ JobSeeker increase during the pandemic.
Many students in the north are being forced to choose between receiving an adequate education and finding a place to sleep.
The government needs to do better and many of the backbenchers know this.”
Anti-Poverty Network SA 