Editorial: Housing crisis needs urgent action from Government

Any Labor government’s priority should be protecting the most vulnerable, so why isn’t ours doing more to solve the housing crisis, writes the editor.

The first priority of any Labor government should be to do everything in its power to protect the most vulnerable in our society. That is, after all, one of the core values that the Labor Party is built on – delivering government that is focused on achieving an effective safety net.

Today’s startling revelations that children are being taken from their parents because the family cannot find or afford a place to live in what is the tightest rental market in living memory should surely then prompt far more decisive action than we have seen on this issue so far from the Palaszczuk government.

And that is because the state government has not exactly been treating this very serious issue with the urgency required. While it deserves credit for being quick to convene a housing summit within days of The Courier-Mail’s Hitting Home campaign having called for one, the government’s actions since have left a fair bit to be desired. The biggest issue seems to be apathy.

Despite that summit having happened a month ago, there simply does not appear to have been any urgency to deliver on the ideas raised. Where is the urgent action required to fix this problem that is affecting the most vulnerable in our community – the very people Labor says it holds most dear? There simply is no evidence of it.

Where is the sense of urgency from Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk? Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

The government says it has since taken a number of steps, including lifting restrictions on renting granny flats, investing $200m to accelerate investment in infrastructure to unlock land for new housing, and unlocking almost 50,000 residential lots. But that is all mostly medium-term stuff – cold comfort for families not only having to sleep rough, but live with the heartbreak of having their kids made wards of the state until they can find a place to live.

We recently highlighted a specific example of the government’s lack of action: Two months ago Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk unveiled a plan to convert into emergency accommodation disused student beds at Griffith University. But despite Deputy Premier Steven Miles having pledged to “work quickly” to get the facility up and running, when we visited the site a fortnight ago, no significant on-site works had happened.

“Nothing is more important than having a roof over your head – it’s a basic need – and the stories of people without secure housing are heartbreaking,” the Premier said when she announced the plan.

We agree, but again we ask – where is the urgency?

Maybe Opposition Leader David Crisafulli was right when he accused the government of making it “all about the announcement and not delivering for Queenslanders”.

“Good governments plan and deliver, not announce and walk away,” he said. Again, we agree with that sentiment.

If only the government was putting as much energy into real fixes for the housing crisis as it is in spruiking the detail of its renewable energy plan – a plan which is a good one, and an important one; but that surely lacks the urgency of a proper investment in this housing crisis.