MP queries ‘gold-plated’ housing buys

AFTER three years, almost $5 million and a bankrupt builder, a new public housing building at Burleigh Heads is finished.

The 11 single-bedroom units on the Gold Coast Highway cost taxpayers $4.9 million after being stalled in January 2017 when the original building company, Batir Pty Ltd, collapsed and was placed under external administration.

But more than two weeks after completion of the building Member for Burleigh Michael Hart is questioning why it is taking so long for tenants to move in. “I don’t believe anyone has moved in and given there are 15,000 people on the (public housing) waiting list, I want to know why it is taking so long.”

Mr Hart said it could be because the building only had single-bedroom units.

“It looks like a nice facility and it is in a good location for people who need public transport. But maybe people want more than just one bedroom. It would mean families couldn’t live there.”

A Department of Housing and Public Works spokeswoman said people were living there and it would be full within two weeks.

Housing and Public Works Minister Mick de Brenni said the LNP on the Gold Coast was all over the shop.

“One minute they demand we evict people from social housing, the next they demand we move people into social housing. All the LNP has done in respect of this particular case shows how out of touch they are with the process of constructing homes – which is no surprise, given that in their time (in government) they built just six compared to our 392.”

The State Government was spending $110 million in public housing over the next five years on the Gold Coast to create 392 new homes and 63 fulltime jobs each year.

But Mr Hart said the money could be better spent if the government was not “gold plating the public housing system”.

The Burleigh Heads site cost $1.4 million and construction cost $3.5 million, $445,454 a unit.

In February, the Housing and Public Works Department bought three adjoining blocks in Southport for $1.9 million and spent $962,500 on a lot at Coomera in January. In May last year, $2 million was spent on three blocks at the corner of High and North streets, Southport. “If they buy cheaper land for them they could get more units for cheaper,” Mr Hart said.