Emily Bullock, a Glebe estate resident and Hands Off Glebe activist said the NSW government had a fight on its hands and called for an expansion of public housing.
Other speakers included Newtown MP Jenny Leong MP, campaigner Judy Mundey, Louisa Biddington from Eveleigh estate, Evan Van Zijl, from the Australian Unemployed Workers Union and John Engler from Shelter NSW, who received applause as he reflected on the government’s back down on affordable housing at Cowper Street.
On March 22, the government announced a change to the housing development on Cowper Street and Wentworth Park Road, Glebe, saying it would now deliver 100% new social housing. Its original plan was for 70% private housing and 30% social housing. This project will now deliver a total of 75 new social homes, which is 56 more than originally proposed.
He had come from far north Queensland to Sydney to play football and obtained paid employment as a builders’ labourer.
The work was notoriously lacking in safety measures, the amenities on site almost non-existent and the wages poor.
He joined the union only to discover that those who tried to do something about improving wages and conditions on the job were soon dismissed, not only with the support of the union leadership but often at their instigation.
He joined the rank and file organisation which, in an excellent example of daring to struggle, eventually overthrew the previous, corrupt, leadership of the union.