Housing Discrimination Against Non-Indigenous People

You’d think in 2024, discrimination wouldn’t exist when buying a house. If you can afford it, you can buy it! No other factors come into play, right? Especially not one’s ethnicity or gender? Well, you’d be wrong. Here’s a company called Nightingale Housing, who according to their website, are “a not-for-profit organisation building apartments that are socially, financially and environmentally sustainable. We believe that homes should be built for people, not profit”. Okay, sounds wonderful. But of course, there’s a catch.

The Ballot. “Our homes are sold through a simple balloting process that gives everyone a fair chance”. I question their use of the word ‘fair’. I’d say it’s completely not fair. “Fair: Impartial and just, without favouritism or discrimination.” – Noting the words, “without favouritism”. Fair chance? Hardly.

Scrolling down, “Those who qualify for our priority ballot (see below) have a slightly better chance of being successful.” Hmm, what happened to fairness? “Priority ballot. To help with creating equity within our communities…” Yes, here we go. “We are committed in assisting minority members of society gain access to social participation and secure housing.” “Up to 20% of homes are allocated to so-called ‘key community contributors’, individuals with a disability, carers, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and women, trans people and gender diverse people aged 55 and over.”

Priority Ballot Policy. Let me just fix that up for them – Discrimination Policy. “Discrimination: The unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of ethnicity, age, sex, or disability.” Yep, they’ve pretty much ticked all those boxes.

So for example, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. “At Nightingale Housing it is important for us to demonstrate in practical and tangible ways our acknowledgement of the Traditional Custodians and Owners of the Lands on which we build and meet.” Okay, if it’s not your land, if you admit it’s Aboriginal land, give them a free house! Why are you charging them for it? “One way we try do to this is by providing priority balloting to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.” There’s a verification process, with the only requirement basically being a statutory declaration declaring that you are indeed Aboriginal. So for example, a cashed-up Indigenous-identifying university professor comes along, say Bruce Pascoe, wanting to buy an apartment with his, according to Crikey, $200,000-a-year salary, and let’s say he’s in competition with a struggling single Aussie Dad who lost his wife last year trying to raise his two young children on his $50,000 salary, who gets priority? Well, the rich Aboriginal professor does because he’s got the right ethnic background. Piss off single Dad with white skin. You’re not welcome in Woke Towers. You’re already too privileged! Heck, even if this guy was an Asian Australian, he still is not considered a priority. Indigenous people first!

To be fair, the single dad still has a chance in the general ballot, noting, “On ballot day, two separate ballots are drawn: first, the priority ballot and then, once the priority allocations are exhausted, the general ballot.” So it’s just that the rich Indigenous professor gets to go first before the struggling single Dad. Also note that, “The second draw will be an open draw and drawn once the priority ballot allocation has been exhausted (or alternatively, once all priority ballot entrants have been allocated an apartment).” So if the rich Indigenous professor was the only minority person to apply, then he’s guaranteed a house, whereas everyone else has to go into the draw. I like how they pretend that this is all fair, “All entries have a random and equal chance of being drawn for an offer.” Unless of course, you’re Aboriginal, female, or transsexual.

Obviously, this is complete discrimination what they are doing. Perhaps somebody should sue them. If this happened in any other industry, for example, if Woolworths supermarkets prioritised 20% of their groceries to go towards Indigenous, Transgender, and female Australians before going to other people, well, that would just be outrageous and surely illegal.

Interestingly, on Nightingale’s website, they state, “Up to 10% of apartments will be pre-allocated to the project team. The project team includes Nightingale Housing staff, project architect staff and Nightingale Housing collaborators directly involved with the project.” But why, why would they do that? Well, they answer that question, “By experiencing a project first hand, we believe our team are better able to continuously improve upon the delivery of Nightingale projects.” So before even transgender and Aboriginal people get to move in, the staff have already allocated 10% to themselves! It’s as much laughable as it is corrupt.

Yes, discrimination is alive and well here in Australia.

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Allégro by Emmit Fenn