Australia’s youth are saved! Why? Because an influential coalition of business, social, and youth leaders is supporting an Australian-first community-led policy forum that will draw on real-life experiences to break the political gridlock and offset widening divisions over changes to address the housing and rental crisis.
Paul Bassat, co-founder of SEEK and venture capital fund Square Peg, has joined forces with former senior NSW and federal public servant Georgina Harrisson to put housing reform at the heart of their nonpartisan Amplify grassroots movement.
Amplify, established to be independent of political parties, will launch its first in-person and online forums this week, starting a six-month process culminating in 100 Australians being selected to participate in the first Amplification event to be held in Sydney in February.
As Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton clash over competing housing policies ahead of next year’s election, Amplify has positioned housing as its primary focus after polling showed 95% of voters ranked housing availability and affordability as a priority issue.
The poll of 4000 Australians, conducted for Amplify by Resolve in July and August, revealed less than 15% of voters trust the government to make the right decision on housing compared with 53% who believe community-based decisions will deliver better outcomes.
Amplify’s people-led movement is backed by high-profile board members, including Tabcorp chief executive and former AFL boss Gillon McLachlan, former NSW premier Dominic Perrottet, Bunnings managing director Michael Schneider, inaugural Tech Council of Australia chief executive Kate Pounder and River Capital Group co-founder Suzi Carp. Corporate supporters include CBA, McKinsey, Arnold Bloch Leibler and the Sidney Myer Fund.
…A group of Community Heroes consisting of Australians of the Year Local Hero and Seniors winners and finalists will shortlist housing reforms in areas such as demand and supply, tax treatment of homes, access to finance, tenancy regulation, social housing stock, land use planning and construction industry capacity.
With due respect, SEEK, Bunnings, CBA, Myer, Tech, and the newspaper bringing you this coverage all love the housing crisis because it is primarily the result of the mass immigration that supports their businesses.
Given the primary answer to the housing crisis is slashing immigration to zero, are these groups really in this for the right reasons or to just keep the focus on supply?
Let’s see how they go with their townhall meetings. I urge all of you to attend and yell “slash immigration”!
