Open Letter of Joint Demands: COVID19 Victorian Lockdown

Sign the Open Letter of Joint Demands: COVID19 Victorian Lockdown as an individual here

To the Victorian State Government and Australian Federal Government

We the undersigned are calling for the urgent need to immediately reinstate the COVID19 Rental Protections.

Victorian renters are overrepresented in casual work and will lose more than a week’s income that is urgently needed to pay rent.

Victorian renters including older renters are already facing eviction, including self-evicting due to significant rental stress and Notices To Vacate since the COVID19 protections were lifted.

Renters in significant hardship are facing rental increases in some cases by 25% in regional areas, as well as compounded COVID19 rental debt in addition to standard rental payments since the moratorium legislation was lifted on March 29th.

Insecure, casual and low income workers are in significant insecurity and displacement since income support measures and the Rental Moratorium were scrapped from March 29th. 

Temporary Visa holders have been hit with extreme debt and forced into repayment of up to $20,000 in JobKeeper payments, as well as student and rental debts.

RAHU and the undersigned urgently demand the following measures to be instated immediately, in order for renters to stay at home:

RAHU urgently demands the Victorian State Government:

  1. Immediately reinstate the COVID19 Protections for Renters
  2. Immediately enact an amnesty on rental payments for renters affected for any reason by COVID19 for the length of Stage 4 Restrictions 
  3. Provide a $500 stimulus support payment for every rental household in Victoria

RAHU demands the Federal Government immediately:

  1. Reinstate JobKeeper payments
  2. Reinstate the JobSeeker COVID19 Supplement
  3. Double Commonwealth Rent Assistance payments and fast track applications 
  4. All rental debts accrued due to the impacts of the pandemic are to be forgiven with no fault or penalty

Signed:
Renters And Housing Union (RAHU)
Retail and Fast Food Workers Union (RAFFWU)
Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union (AUWU)
Migrante Melbourne
Gabriela Australia
Anakbayan Melbourne
Industrial Workers of the World – Kulin Nations (IWW)
Housing Action for the Aged Group Inc. (HAAG)
Fair Go for Pensioners Victoria (FGFP)
Save Public Housing Collective (SPHC)
Living Incomes For Everyone (LIFE)
Flat Out Inc
Disabled and Neurodiverse Workers’ Alliance
Homelessness Action Geelong
Fitzroy Legal Service
Casualised, Unemployed & Precarious University Workers (CUPUW)
Health And Community Services Union (HACSU)
GetUp!
National Tertiary Education Union UniMelb Branch (VIC)
RTBU Vic
Maritime Union of Australia (MUA Vic)
Tomorrow Movement

If you are a member of an organisation that would like to sign on to this letter of demands, email RAHU here: [email protected]

If you’d like to sign on as an individual, sign the Open Letter of Joint Demands: COVID19 Victorian Lockdown here