Housing Minister Meaghan Scanlon takes aim at landlords, councils as housing crisis bites
The state’s housing minister has come out swinging after today’s rental Hunger Games report, launching a broadside at councils and landlords “taking advantage of the market”.
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Housing Minister Meaghan Scanlon has taken aim at “unscrupulous” landlords and local councils, saying they were partly to blame for Queensland’s housing crisis.
She also called for more ideas to help solve the crisis which she described as not “an ideal situation”.
Ms Scanlon was responding to revelations that Queensland's’s rental market had descended into a Hunger Games-style battle, with people paying hundreds of dollars a week to live in caravans and sheds.
An investigation by The Courier-Mail revealed that more than 300,000 Queenslanders were still looking for homes eight months after the Palaszczuk Government’s much-hyped housing summit.
Tenants who could find homes were being slugged an average of $56 a week extra in rent since the summit, caravan parks were full, families were living in motels for months and desperate househunters were submitting high-level resumes, the investigation found.
Speaking outside a new social housing complex in her Gold Coast electorate of Gaven, Ms Scanlon – who was appointed Housing Minister in May as part of a Cabinet reshuffle – insisted her government was doing everything it could to help solve the crisis.
“We absolutely acknowledge there are families out there who are doing it tough as a result of national cost of living pressures,” she said.
“The Queensland Government has a record investment in social and affordable housing and we’re doing everything we can to get those homes off the ground as quickly as possible.
“We’re under a lot of pressure right now with both interstate migration, construction industry pressures, supply chain constraints (and) natural disasters that have taken houses out of the market.
“We know it’s a tough time right now and we’re trying to do what we can in the immediate term.”
Asked about reports that people were paying $480 a week to live in a caravan and $350 a week in a shed, Ms Scanlon – whose parents grew up in government housing and is herself a renter – said: “I don’t think anyone thinks the current market is an ideal situation.”
“We all need to see some of those prices come down so we can make sure families have a place to call home,” she said.
She said while there were some “great landlords”, she had also heard reports of “some pretty unscrupulous operators who are taking advantage of the market and vulnerable people”.
“We really need people to all be playing their part to make sure that everyone has a safe place to call home,” she said.
Ms Scanlon also took a swipe at councils she suggested were holding up housing projects.
“We need every level of government to play their role,” she said.
“Brisbane City Council – councils right across the state – need to play their part as well in unlocking affordable supply.
“My message is, anyone who’s opposing housing needs to get out of the way. We all need housing right now and everyone needs to play their role.
“We’re doing everything we can to try and get houses up off the ground as quickly as possible.”
Ms Scanlon said the government had introduced measures including a once-a-year cap on rent increases and initiatives including tiny and prefabricated home schemes.
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