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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-04/housing-is-a-human-right-says-former-vic-supreme-court-judge/104179612>
'Is Australia's housing situation a crisis?
Kevin Bell, a former Victorian Supreme Court justice, says it's worse than a
crisis; it's a socio-economic and human rights disaster.
"The situation we confront has been oft-called a crisis," he says.
"Maybe that was a fair enough description a generation ago. But now it is
obviously not just a blip in an otherwise well-functioning system. It is
chronic. It has become the system.
"That is why we need a stronger word to describe what is unfolding. I have
chosen the word 'disaster', but if it continues much longer, it will be a
catastrophe."
In a new book,
Housing: The Great Australian Right, Bell says the values
underpinning our modern housing system, where property is viewed as a commodity
and instrument of private gain (where speculative investment is encouraged),
rather than a home and human right, is a "national disgrace".
"The economic value of housing as an investment has been allowed to dominate
the social value of housing as a home," he writes.
"That is a skewed way of looking at a fundamental human need that is embodied
in a fundamental human right.
"Yet it has come to define the entire housing system. That is the root cause of
our dilemma. That way of looking at housing has to change."'
Muse added: "Housing IS a human right. Australian Herbert Vere Evatt was
president of the United Nations when the UN
Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (UDHR) was being drafted. On the drafting committee were nine people
which included people like Eleanor Roosevelt AND Australian William Roy
Hodgson. Australia was a significant contributor to this document. Australia
voted in favour of ratifying this document. The city of Melbourne ratified the
UDHR as law. Housing IS a right here, we just aren’t enforcing it."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
