Purple Pingers is coming to Monash Uni: Meet the socialist running for senate
Come meet and hear from the lead candidate for Victorian Socialists, this Wednesday (April 9) at 3pm at Sir John's Bar.
Jordan van den Lamb a.k.a. ‘purplepingers’, is a housing activist, socialist and the lead candidate for senate for Victorian Socialists in the upcoming federal election on May 3. He’s gained notoriety online for calling out dodgy landlords and real estate agents in his ‘Shit Rentals’ series and through his website shitrentals.org.
He’s currently on a tour around Victoria, chatting to people about the ills of capitalism, the housing crisis and how socialist politics has the answers for ordinary people. His next stop is Monash University! This Wednesday, you can meet Jordan and hear about socialist solutions to the housing crisis and how you can get involved in the campaign to put a socialist in parliament.
We need an alternative to the major parties who are offering up crumbs. Australian workers have experienced the worst decline in living standards in any of the OECD countries, an extra $5 a week or 25 cents off each litre of fuel is outrageous given the historic cost-of-living crisis we are currently in.
In their promised election budgets, neither Labor nor Liberal are proposing to build more public housing to provide accommodation for the over 55000 people on the waiting list in Victoria alone. Since June 2024, the applications for social housing have risen by 9.4%. Meanwhile, the Victorian Labor Party has called for the demolition of two public housing towers in Flemington and North Melbourne. Labor gives 10 times in concessions to landlords than to their keynote housing policy (Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF)), the Liberals want to scrap the HAFF and “allow first homebuyers to access up to $50,000 from their superannuation to purchase a home”. Neither the major parties are able or willing to tackle the housing crisis.
Australia is a wealthy country that has the capability to provide for everyone, Victorian Socialists wants to use that money to build one million public housing units over the next decade. To make it more accessible for students and working class people to rent, VS will fight for a 5-year rent freeze. To push back against crap landlords and real estate agents, VS proposes to set up a National Rental Inspectorate to ensure that properties are fit for people to live in. Come hear from Jordan and the socialists this Wednesday.