T

Crisis waits as MPs argue

ASMANIA’S politicians woke yesterday to a stinging critique of their response so far to the state’s homelessness crisis from cartoonist Jon Kudelka in the Mercury. In it, Premier Will Hodgman is depicted sitting at his desk inside with a cup of hot chocolate looking thoughtfully at a piece of paper as the rain falls outside his window. The picture was captioned: “Government considering the housing crisis”. In the next frame Mr Hodgman is depicted curled up — shivering — on a park bench, outside in the rain. This time, the caption reads: “Government considering housing crisis as a matter of urgency.”

Exactly. It’s all very well to declare from the comfort of a ministerial office that your policies to address the housing crisis will be effective in the medium to long term. Perhaps they will be. But that is cold comfort to those who are out there sleeping rough in their cars parked in suburban streets, in tents on the Domain or in the doorways of buildings in the CBD. These people need help, and they need it right now.

That’s what the Mercury’s Give Them Shelter campaign is all about — to push for more than the “business as usual” government response to these issues; to see urgent meaningful responses delivered that will help those in need. As we keep saying, the time for talk is over. As a community we must act now on homelessness. And the Government must lead the way.

And yet in State Parliament yesterday, our 25 Lower House MPs spent the day debating whether they should debate whether Health Minister Michael Ferguson and Housing Minister Roger Jaensch were any good at their jobs.

Those debates — moved by Labor — came after Liberal Speaker Sue Hickey went on radio yesterday morning and said it was time for Mr Ferguson to “consider his position” — hours after telling the Mercury that the Government she is apparently a part of was guilty of “not giving a s..t about the homeless”.

Following the hours of wasted parliamentary time, Ms Hickey stood inside the comfort of the Parliament building as it rained outside and declared: “Michael Ferguson is a very competent minister and he’s a really nice guy when you actually get to know him. He probably sometimes comes across as a little arrogant … but I do think he is giving it his all.”

Labor meanwhile used parliamentary privilege to accuse Housing Minister Jaensch of incompetence. Minister Jaensch said he was just focused on “doing my job to the best of my capability”. And so it went on.

At around the same time just a few blocks away, Scott was trudging back to his tent pitched in suburban bushland from his daily shower at the Richmond Fellowship drop-in centre in Patrick St.

Scott says he has been on the public housing waiting list for two years after skyrocketing rents forced him out of the private rental market. As we report today on page 10-11, Scott’s campsite boasts a small fire, a few cooking pots and pans and a 10-litre bottle of water. And while he says he mostly sleeps soundly on his air mattress under two sleeping bags, he feels less worthy than those with somewhere permanent to call home.

“I miss having the security of a roof, four walls and a door,” Scott told the Mercury. “My head is still back in those four walls and I really want to go back there but I can’t — and I have to live with that.”

Our MPs spent the day debating whether they should debate whether two ministers were any good at their jobs.