Kylie Lang: Palaszczuk lets down vulnerable on social housing
Annastacia Palaszczuk and her government sorely need a reality check on providing enough homes for Queensland’s vulnerable, despite boasting about their “achievements”, writes Kylie Lang.
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Go to the Queensland Labor website and click on “where we stand”.
There you will find a 19-long list of claimed state government policy “achievements”. The things that matter, if you will.
Not one is about social housing. Which could well be the only flicker of truth we’ve seen from this smokescreen-happy government.
Social housing isn’t on the list because it doesn’t rate.
It’s not as sexy as “making Queensland a global film and TV production paradise”, as grassroots as “bringing rail manufacturing back to Maryborough and establishing (sic) defence manufacturing in Ipswich” or as long overdue as “new satellite hopsitals (sic) taking the pressure off emergency departments”.
It’s not as woke as “banning single use plastics” or as hackneyed as “keeping Queenslanders safe” in the pandemic – the government’s default position when ignoring its many failings. Heck, it doesn’t even pip “airconditioning every classrom (sic)” for a place on the priority list.
Yet Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk wants us to believe she cares about providing homes for vulnerable Queenslanders.
We should relax because her lot has it under control. It’s Labor, after all, which stands up for battlers.
Never mind the damning findings of yet another report into the effectiveness of her government.
On Tuesday, within hours of the release of Auditor-General Brendan Worrall’s scathing report into our shambolic social housing system, Ms Palaszczuk appeared disturbingly proud of a stinking situation.
She boasted on Twitter: “It’s true. No Queensland government in 77 years has invested this much into social housing. We’re doing it because I know how important it is to have the security of a roof over your head.”
Is she living on another planet? One awash with red carpets and five-star luxury? How out of touch could a leader possibly be? Here are a few reality checks, as identified in Worrall’s report.
The number of households approved for social housing has soared by 78 per cent since 2018. However, the government’s inability to keep an accurate housing register means the most deserving all too often miss out.
A staggering 61 per cent of people on the waitlist are “very high need” while 39 per cent cannot be contacted, have inactive applications or are “lower need”.
More than 8400 dwellings have two or more spare bedrooms.
The Housing Department has no process for identifying tenants who could transition to the private market. And on it goes.
It’s a mess of monumental proportions to which I can add a case study.
A three-bedroom home in Wavell Heights in Brisbane’s north was left vacant for several months while its occupant – yes, occupant singular – did jail time for theft and drug-related crimes.
Why was the house held for this offender when a family could have had a roof over their heads? It’s just one of the many inconsistencies and injustices defining an incompetent system that our taxpayer dollars fund.
Perhaps worst of all is Worrall’s finding that the Palaszczuk government doesn’t do modelling to determine future needs.
Plans to start building 6365 social and affordable homes by 2025 will not reduce the waitlist. “These dwellings alone will not be sufficient as growth of the register is likely to accelerate with rising interest rates and a tightening rental market,” Worrall said.
It makes you wonder who, if anybody, in government has a finger on the pulse.
Housing Minister Leeanne Enoch – who this week must have been wishing for something, anything big to happen in her other portfolios of the arts and digital economy – acknowledged the system had been “under incredible pressure”.
“This is compounded by pressure on the construction sector for both skilled trades and supplies, interstate migration, and the recent natural disasters,” Enoch said.
None of the above addresses long-term inaction on Queensland’s social housing crisis.
This is not a new issue. It has been festering for years as the state’s most needy are forgotten. Where this government “stands” on social housing doesn’t figure on its website credentials for a reason, and it’s not a typo.
LOVE:
● Redemption for Ben Hunt, whose cool hands and fast legs enabled him to score scored Queensland’s blistering final try at the 78th minute, clinching the State of Origin series.
● Efforts to stop kids vaping. Queensland police are behind a new awareness video to give children “critical thinking skills” to improve their health. Be helpful if parents weighed in and more took vaping seriously.
LOATHE:
● The Albanese government scrapping Covid payments to casual workers and free RAT tests because they were decisions made by the previous mob. The party in power calls the shots.
● The demolition of Eagle Street Pier as restaurants serve their last meals this weekend. RIP some of Brisbane’s best. The riverfront landmark will make way for a bigger venue.
Kylie Lang is associate editor of The Courier-Mail.
kylie.lang@news.com.au
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Originally published as Kylie Lang: Palaszczuk lets down vulnerable on social housing
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