Throughout his life, Barnett was influenced by the Christian socialist tradition of the Methodist Church. In 1923, shocked after a visit to a slum mission, he joined with a group of other young Methodists which resulted in the foundation of the Methodist Babies Home in South Yarra in 1929. In 1928 he had graduated a Bachelor of Commerce from Melbourne University; in 1931 he completed a master's degree with the thesis “The Economics of the Slums” in which he correlated the physical condition of housing with the social condition of its residents. In 1934 he formed a study group of about 40 members comprising the lawyer Oswald Burt, several notable architects and a surveyor/town planner, Fr Tucker of the Brotherhood of St Lawrence and representatives of other church and charitable institutions. The group held weekly meetings to receive and discuss papers about housing reform and soon attracted the attention of the major evening newspaper, The Herald.Reform and Social Responsibility: The Establishment of the Housing Commission. New Houses for Old: Fifty Years of Public Housing in Victoria 1938 - 1988. R. Howe. Melbourne, Ministry of Housing and Construction: 20-44
