Some of Australia’s most pressing concerns are on the Don Dunstan Foundation’s agenda at the moment. Coming up in a few weeks is our second annual housing symposium, this year shaped as a national rental summit. Our keynote speaker is the CEO of Housing Australia, Scott Langford, whose organisation is designed to help more Australians access affordable, safe and secure housing.
He’ll be joined by local thinkers and leaders in the field, not only identifying and quantifying the many challenges in the rental market and public housing, but also coming up with innovative ideas to improve the situation. Affordability, quality and the mix of available houses to rent are issues that require urgent attention.
If you missed the Lowitja O’Donoghue Oration last month, we’ve got you sorted – click here to find a recording of orator Romlie Mokak’s powerful and insightful talk. His central topic – the power of love, and its absence, in policy-making – made a compelling starting and finishing point. He also made significant arguments about issues such as the real ‘gap’ in the ‘Closing the Gap’ targets, the drawbacks of ‘practical reconciliation’, and the need for Indigenous data sovereignty.
Overlaying all of these issues is one of Don’s central concerns – economic inequality. When the size of your income determines whether you have a roof over your head, or whether your home is fit to live in, we have a big problem. When your economic participation, the quality of your housing and the state of your health is determined by structural racism, we have much work to do. Fortunately for us, there are people like Romlie who have given much thought to how we can shape that work.
For him, it is the role of Australia’s parliamentary and civic leadership to lead the way forward in Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander policy, in the bleak aftermath of the Voice referendum.
“We are fatigued but not defeated, with the knowledge that the way forward does not – and cannot – sit solely with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people,” he said. “For the love of the people, meaning all people, we must find a way forward.”
