When you fill up the car this week, you’ll feel it. Petrol prices have surged again as the conflict in the Middle East drags into another month, and every Together member who commutes to work is paying for it. It’s the kind of cost-of-living shock that hits you in the moment — sharp, visible, impossible to ignore. We hear you. It’s real, and it’s hurting.
But here’s the thing about petrol prices: they go up, and eventually they come down. Wars end. Supply chains stabilise. The price at the bowser is volatile, but it’s not permanent.
Rent is different.
Rent doesn’t go up and come back down. When your landlord raises your rent by $50 a week, that $50 is gone forever. It becomes your new baseline. And then next year, they might raise it again. Over the past five years, rents in Queensland have climbed by more than 30%. Wages, in the same period, have risen by 17%. That gap isn’t a temporary squeeze. It’s the slow, grinding reshaping of what working life actually delivers for the people who keep this state running.
That’s why Together is launching Renters at Work. A survey of about how housing is affecting your life and your work.
Why we’re asking
We already know housing is a problem. The headlines tell us that. The ACTU’s research tells us that. Anglicare found last year that just 1% of rentals nationwide are affordable for essential workers. But what we don’t know, what nobody has properly measured, is how the rental crisis is hitting Queensland’s public sector workforce specifically. The health workers, the schools officers, the child safety officers, the corrections staff, the allied health practitioners. The people who staff the hospitals, schools, and services that the rest of the state relies on.
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How many of you rent?
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How many have had a rent increase in the past year?
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How many have moved further from work just to afford somewhere to live?
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How many have held back from asking for a repair because you were worried about what would happen next?
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And what does it mean for your work when your home situation is this unstable?
We don’t know the answers yet. We need you to tell us.
What the survey looks like
This week you’ll get a text message from Together. A few short questions. Under 30 seconds to complete. We’ll ask about your housing situation, your expectations for the future, and whether rent is taking a bigger share of your pay than it was a year ago.
That’s it. No essays, no forms, no commitment.
For some members, we’ll follow up with a phone call to hear more about your story — what’s actually happening in your life and what changes would make a difference. Those conversations will shape what we fight for next.
Why this matters
Petrol prices will eventually come down. Rent won’t, unless we change the system that’s driving it up. And changing that system starts with understanding exactly what’s happening to the workers Together represents in your own words, with real numbers behind them.
Your wages campaign and your housing situation aren’t two separate things. They’re the same fight: a fight for what work should actually deliver. A fair pay packet that goes far enough to live on, in a home you can afford to stay in, in a community you can build a life in.
Look out for the text. Reply. Tell us what’s happening.
