Art of the Month winner:

“Microbial Agent”

By: Cathleen

Want to see your art here? Submit it for next month at [email protected]  See the rest of the runner ups and submissions at the end of this newsletter!

Whole Union Updates

WE WANT YOU!

(Governing Committee/Returning Officer)

RAHU Feb 2026 By-election is now under way! 

Nominations open until March 11th

We had our first proper meeting for the year on 1st March.

Our main topics were:

Campaign Updates

• Public Housing Campaign, specifically in NSW and VIC, which is happening alongside the Public and Community Housing Committee
• Collective Bargaining Campaign, taking inspiration from labour units and trying to implement this in the rental market by encouraging tenants with the same landlord to work together.
• Campaigns are looking to other states and territories for campaigns that aren’t so Vic centric.

General Election

• Brief mention of the new office bearers, as well as mention of positions that are still open for nominations

Peer Support

• This was an open discussion that invited attendees to talk about the issues important to them.
• Matthew brought up issues in the NT, specifically for teachers. Raised how teachers aren’t eligible for government housing if they’re not working in major centres. Housing in places like Katherine and Alice Springs are hard to come by and of poor quality. We were all quite keen to see what more RAHU could do on this.

Encouraging Participation from all Members

• Whether you’re an office bearer or delegate, or not, everyone is encouraged to get involved in the union. Nobody is expected to know how to do things straight off the bat, you will have help where needed.
• Nay, GMB Delegate

February at North Naarm:

Reporting Delegate: Harry

Feb Branch Meeting Turnout: 10 Members

• Elected new Delegate
• Ran RAHU 101
• Passed motion for statement of international solidarity against imperialism
• Started fundraiser for local mother in public housing to get age appropriate bathroom upgrade 
• Organised poster run 18th Feb

Check out the statement of solidarity here

Want to get involved?
Email [email protected] or post in our Discord.

February at Inner South Naarm:

This past month, Southside members have been working on the Housing Bulletin and though we have plenty of submissions we would love more. We are also working on creating info materials for the migrant renters in our areas such as backpackers, international students and others on insecure visas.

We are also revving up to commence doorknocking the public housing towers in Port Phillip which have been slated for demolition next.

We also have a new nomination for branch delegate and we welcome any more members who want to step up to maintain and grow the branch!

Want to get involved?
Email [email protected] or post in our Discord.

February at West Naarm Branch:

• In February, the West branch participated in planning the West Deserves The Best conference, which is set to be held in March! 
• The West branch also participated in the Footscray Community Response campaign to oppose Maribrynong Council’s decision to hire private security in the Footscray area.

February in WA:

• Membership Cards!
  • At the last branch meeting we distributed membership cards! Will be given out at branch meetings going forward. If you are unable to make such meetings please email [email protected] and we can organise getting the cards to you.
• Branch Meeting on 21st of Feb 2026
  • Attendance High and went well
  • 3 new delegates elected, RAHU WA branch at delegate limit for branch.
• Organising:
  • Door Knock (attempt) on Feb 15th with one other member – Became a scout/training as couldn’t access property to talk to residents.
  • Student Organising – Met with Curtin Student Guild to discuss organising possibilities; UWA organising at 0 day. Made videos but yet to upload. Student Organising Group established. Meeting later in March
  • TUFA Organising – doing so co-organising with Ryan from Trade Unions For All to engage young People with Unions (trade and Tenant)
• Member Support:
  • Multiple Bits of Member support in the past month where members autonomously have been aiding each other with evictions and inspections. Get in touch if you need support

February at New South Wales:

• We had a meeting on the 23rd, admitted 2 new members and elected 3 new delegates.
• We’re also gonna focus on public housing in Marrickville being evicted for privatisation and try to organise maybe a letterboxing run for a social thing in cooperation with tenants NSW to educate people on their rights.
• We’re also trying to establish a rent strike fund which was moved as a priority.

Treasurer Report:

No report was submitted for Feb for the Finance Committee. If you want to see your branch mentioned in this newsletter, please get in contact with your office bearer at [email protected] or ask about it in the members discord

Membership Officers Report:

In February we were focussed on organising and promoting the Naarm RAHU social event. Thank you so much to all who attended and Uncle Robbie, Hank and Adu for speaking alongside Milly on the panel. 

We also ran our first RAHU 101 together for the NSW branch. We are still in the process of updating RAHU 101 and looking forward to running regular induction sessions soon. 

Our next membership admin meeting will be a hybrid meeting both online and in person at Borderlands in Footscray. We look forward to seeing you there! 

• Milly & Taylah, Membership Officers

Communications Officer Report:

• Busy month, lots of posts and experimenting over the past month with style of posts.
• Ran 2 meetings since coming into Comms role (in Jan and Feb) and been good to get the committee going again. 

Comms

• Helped write quite a few media statements a part of the Eviction Resistance in Forrest Field
• Newsletter was sent out- this was a complete mess though, and wasn’t as viewable as hoped; have learnt lessons for next month. 
• Been working on improved guidelines for Comms and the like. Specifically with emails and at least checking with Comms OB before comms go out.

Social Media

• Got feedback on these posts as well. Going to do less shitposty posts
• Potentially going to have a Social Media Office Bearer provisionally stepping up into role, and then potentially running an election for them if they are good enough. 
• Guidelines for Social Media requested by South Australia based GMB delegates – related to SA branch Instagram.

• William B, Comms Officer

Operations Officer Report:

Throughout January and early February the Operations Committee has continued running the behind-the-scenes technical components of the union, ensuring everything is running smoothly. Additionally, we have begun work on improving our cybersecurity in regards to file storage and we have begun a project to make accessing internal documentation easier for RAHU members.

• Kali C, Operations Officer

Campaigns Officer Report:

This past month RAHU’s Campaigns committee has continued to move forward with the ongoing collective bargaining campaign. We have identified multiple new targets and have begun forming new tenant networks and actively organising within these groups. 

At our most recent meeting the committee discussed opening potential new campaigns as we move further into the year; specifically calling for campaigns relevant across all states where RAHU has branches. 

We’ve also recently been in contact with Community Action Tenants Union (CATU), an Irish tenant’s union and are due to meet with them soon to discuss shared experiences of collective bargaining and organising. 

the next general campaigns meeting will take place on the 29/03/2026 at 5pm AEDT via zoom and in person at our offices in trades hall.

• Elodie, Campaigns Officer

Renters Rights Officer Report:

No report was submitted for Feb for the Renters Rights Committee. If you want to see your branch mentioned in this newsletter, please get in contact with your office bearer at [email protected] or ask about it in the members discord

Want to get involved?
Email [email protected] or post in the members Discord.

Since our last Public and “Social” Housing (P/SH) Report, I am pleased to announce that we had a meeting on the 21st of February at which our new P/SH Committee was inaugurated in Naarm.

At this first Committee meeting, we had a fruitful discussion about the current attack on public housing and the possible, and most viable immediate and longer-term course that RAHU might take in our struggle to defend and extend public housing. Our initial evaluation was that, amongst the diverse tactics undertaken by various groups and organisations, RAHU’s strength appears to be focus on the self-organisation of residents.

Firstly, to that end, as mentioned in the last report, we intend to experiment with and improve upon (a) our newly developed tenancy organising guide and (b) the cultivation of our collective bargaining approach. As a bonus, we also hope that this will not only improve our chance of success towards RAHU’s long term P/SH objectives, but provide experience and improvements to our general effectiveness across all areas of housing struggle in general too. Secondly, we will try to build useful and productive relationships and a division of labour with other organisations, such as 44 Flats United, to empower residents as quickly and well as we can, as we face the onslaught of Government propagandising (aka, lies) and manipulation (aka, bullying) of PH tenants. Lastly, it is of no less importance that we build self-organisation, skills, will and solidarity (as well as membership) among “social” housing residents, who are also active members of our new committee.

The cooperativeness, intelligence and accumulated experience, and comradely and respectful culture of the newly founded P/SH Committee bodes well for our future struggle.

• Hank F, Public and Social Housing Officer

Disability Officers Report:

The Disability Committee is working on a ‘cold homes’ campaign for this winter, targeting the poor minimum standards for housing stock in so-called Australia. Disabled and chronically ill people are especially affected by homes that they can’t keep warm in the winter. Any disabled, d/Deaf or chronically ill members who have ideas for the campaign, or anything else they’d like the Disability Committee to work on, are welcome to email us! 

• Kaitlyn & Artemis, Co-Disability Officers

‘Microbial Agent” by Cathleen B

“Abstract Fight Landlordism” by William B