Posted on Thursday, 29 August
Victorian Socialists is proud to announce that Jordan van den Lamb, aka. purplepingers, housing advocate and bane of landlords and real estate agents everywhere, will be the Victorian Socialists’ lead Senate candidate in the next federal election.
You can view Jordan's campaign announcement, make a donation, and/or sign-up to get involved via our campaign website at pingers4parliament.com.
“I’m running for parliament”, van den Lamb explains, “because we need change. Landlord profits are at record highs, banking sector profits are at record highs. Meanwhile, the lines for community food banks are longer than we've ever seen, and homelessness support services have reached a breaking point.
“This is a failure that we need to address urgently. But the current parliament of landlords keep passing laws that increase the value of their own investment properties at the cost of those who live in the houses they hoard.”
Around 44 percent of sitting MPs own one or more investment properties, compared to just 15 percent of the wider population. As reported by Crikey in 2022, the 227 federal members of parliament own 510 properties between them—an average of 2.25 properties per MP. There are more MPs who own three or more properties (84) than there are who own one or fewer (83).
A parliament of landlords with a base salary of more than $200,000 can’t be trusted to represent the interests of renters and others in housing stress. That’s one reason why the Victorian Socialists executive recently adopted a new set of rules to disqualify landlords who collect ongoing rent payments on investment properties apart from their primary residence from seeking preselection with the party.
Dubbed “the Robin Hood of renters” by fans—and a “piece of trash” who “should be locked up” by his detractors—van den Lamb has built an online following of more than 200,000 on TikTok and 68,000 on Instagram by exposing dodgy landlords and real estate agents.
His website shitrentals.org, established in 2023, provides a forum for renters to share reviews of their rental properties and real estate agents.
While it has caused grief for dodgy landlords and estate agents, it has raised much-needed awareness of how the current housing system is failing renters.
Van den Lamb stirred controversy this year by advocating squatting in empty properties. He set up a database of homes left empty for more than two years and has publicised some of the addresses.
A recent Prosper Australia report, which analysed properties’ water use, estimated that there are close to 100,000 vacant homes in Melbourne—enough to house more than 250,000 people. That’s many more than are currently homeless or languishing on the public housing waiting list.
Victorian Socialists want to double the land tax on properties vacant for more than six months of the year and seize properties for use as public housing if vacant for more than two years without a good reason.
“Politicians on both sides”, van den Lamb says, “are spending hundreds of billions of dollars on nuclear submarines. At the same time, we're seeing homelessness and housing insecurity skyrocket—despite there being hundreds of thousands of empty homes for us to live in.
“Labor’s red doesn’t represent social-democratic values anymore. It represents the blood of Palestinians killed in Gaza while Labor has signed deals with weapons companies that are arming Israel. It represents those who die because of homelessness, the gutting of the NDIS, the near abolition of public housing programs that our prime minister benefitted from before pulling up the ladder behind himself, and the First Nations people who continue to die in custody.
“Labor claims to stand for working-class people. Again and again though, they’ve put the interests of big business and the wealthy first, and workers last.
“I’m a socialist”, says van den Lamb. “I believe that every single one of us should have an equal chance at a decent life, and that our futures shouldn’t be decided based on the postcode we’re born in, or whether our parents are landlords.
“I stand for a society in which no one has to struggle just to keep a roof over their head. One that prioritises building good quality public housing, and investing in health, education, welfare and sustainability, instead of spending hundreds of billions on submarines and tax cuts for the rich.
“Australia is one of the world’s wealthiest countries, but the wealth is increasingly concentrated among those at the top. I want to help turn that around by joining with others to organise and fight for a better society here in Australia, and for a better world.”