Housing Minister Sam O’Connor in Bundaberg over housing crisis

The Qld housing minister and opposition leader were in Bundaberg this week as 1500 local resident remain on the wait list for social housing. VOTE IN OUR POLL ON THIS CRISIS

Housing Minister Sam O’Connor met with Mayor Helen Blackburn and community members to discuss the ongoing housing crisis in Bundaberg.

Queensland Housing Minister Sam O’Connor was in Bundaberg this week visiting the site of a new social housing project with Burnett LNP MP Stephen Bennett and community stakeholders including Mayor Helen Blackburn.

Forty new homes are expected to be built near Kalkie in the coming years, and Mr O’Connor said the biggest handbrake on housing supply had been low productivity in the building sector, an issue he said was being tackled by reducing the “regulatory burden for builders”.

He said Queensland had the lowest productive job sites in the country, with builders tied up in paperwork, rather than on sites getting the job done.

According to recent data, there are 1500 people in the Bundaberg Local Government Area waiting for social homes.

Opposition leader Cameron Dick called on the state government and Mr O’Connor to release a report on housing insecurity, which he said would help “guide the future... of ending homelessness in the state.”

Bundaberg Labor MP Tom Smith said an interim report showed the face of homelessness was changing.

Women over the age of 55 were increasingly vulnerable to housing insecurity, Mr Smith said.

“It’s mums and dads; it’s children out on the streets, sleeping in tents and sleeping in cars.”

Tom Smith met with opposition minister Cameron Dick to discuss the ongoing housing crisis in the region. In a statement to the media on Tuesday March 18, 2025, he said the face of housing insecurity is changing.

Mr Dick said homelessness could not be addressed without a clear path forward, and that releasing the report, which was commissioned by the former Labor state government in 2024, was an essential first step in solving the crisis.

Mr O’Connor responded later that afternoon and said “there’s no point talking about housing, you actually have to deliver”.

“We’re making sure housing is a priority,” he said.

Queensland Housing Minister Sam O’Connor was in Bundaberg this week visiting the site of a new social housing project with Burnett LNP MP Stephen Bennett and community stakeholders including Mayor Helen Blackburn.met at a social housing project on Tuesday March 18, 2025.