Cairns Regional Council’s local housing action plan a ‘collaboration’ document

A new housing plan endorsed by Cairns councillors has been described as a “nice, fluffy” document “without much meat” — but critical to solving the one of the city’s most immediate issues.

Cairns Regional Council has endorsed a new local housing action plan.

A new housing plan unanimously endorsed by Cairns Regional councillors has been described as a “nice, fluffy” document “without much meat” — but critical to solving the one of the city’s most immediate issues.

Cairns Regional Council’s Local Housing Action Plan was endorsed at Wednesday’s ordinary meeting.

The report aims to deliver 33 actions across three time periods defined as short – within 12 months, medium – within two years and long – within five years.

But Deputy Mayor Brett Olds conceded the plan did not include a “silver bullet” to fix the housing crisis.

He said it was a formalisation of the issue, which would allow Cairns council, the Local Government Association of Queensland and the state to work collaboratively on “finding the how”.

Cairns Regional Council Deputy Mayor Brett Olds and Acting Chief Executive Christine Posgate. Picture: Brendan Radke

“When I read through it I was like ‘Well it’s a nice document, but where’s the meat?,” Mr Olds said.

“I think the strength of this report is really in that collaboration piece statement – that the (state) government has said yep we’ll work with you and the LGAQ has said we’ll work with you.”

Cr Olds said the local housing plan was about ensuring all three governments were on “the same page” in relation to the issues, after two elections in the year led to mixed debates and “stabs” and “finger pointing” in attributing blame.

The plan identified seven “focus areas” of housing that needed to addressed, with the first being “housing supply that meets needs”.

Queensland Housing Minister Sam O’Connor. CRC’s new housing action plan aims to work collaboratively with the new state government.

It recognised to meet Cairns’ growing population, 33,300 new dwellings would need to be built by 2050, or about 1200 per year. It also recognised this required rate exceeded the current production rate of about 700 dwellings per year.

Among those 33,300 dwellings required, the plan called for a mix of housing styles including 5000 townhouses and 6500 units and apartments.

“While council’s policy settings support a mix of housing types in established and greenfield areas, little diversity in housing stock has been delivered by the private sector,” the plan noted.

Mr Olds said he personally held the view of restraining government intervention in private land holdings, when asked how the council could influence the construction of mixed housing.

“One of the questions we put on the Our Cairns survey was ‘Do you think people not developing their land in a timely manner, should we get the stick out?’’’

“The response wasn’t overwhelmingly for doing that.

“Personally, I’m not a communist, I believe in smaller governments.

“Let’s say you own a bunch of land, you inherited it, or you’ve worked hard and bought it – I don’t think the government should be able to come to you and say ‘we want you to do something with it’.”

Originally published as Cairns Regional Council’s local housing action plan a ‘collaboration’ document