Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

In supporting the Social Security and Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Weekly Payments) Bill 2010, I note the good work being done by an agency in my electorate called Goori House, headed up by John Close and supported ably by David and Bill. I also note the hostel and rehabilitation services that they offer to homeless people in my electorate and, in fact, the whole greater Brisbane area. Many of those homeless people are struggling with the demons of drugs and alcohol and are trying to find their way back by learning new skills in a residential setting that is now, I am pleased to say, back in vogue after a number of years when we believed that residential rehabilitation from drugs and alcohol was not cost effective. I am glad to see that over the last five years that has changed and that the benefits of centres like Goori are now recognised. Yesterday they opened the men’s shed, which is an important opportunity for young men to earn certificates I and II in basic trades—great steps back into self-worth and the belief that they can contribute again in society, leaving behind the years lost to drugs and alcohol. I also congratulate their partners: the Redland City Council, Miller Communications, Finlandia Village, Faith Lutheran College and Bendigo Bank.

On another notion of the important investments that have been made in public housing, I note while the minister is here that we have seen, in the search for shovel-ready programs and the commendable effort to see public housing built on occasion in places like Narangba and Mary Street, Birkdale, a rushing of the process. We can understand that there is some haste required, but environmental concerns and communication with the local communities have been lost in the effort to build these public housing facilities quickly. The request to state governments, I acknowledge, was to find shovel-ready locations that did not have to go through the full council approval process, and in many cases developers raised their hand and said, ‘Please take this block of land.’

I want to tell the Mary Street story very briefly as it applies to addressing homelessness in my community. What happened was that, because it was deemed code-assessable, a very crude division was done. The 2-6 Mary Street block was 4,000 square metres. It was divided by 200 square metres per dwelling, allowing 20 units. Only 12 car parking spots were included in the development. That is of great concern in a fairly small street where there is a childcare centre on one side and a school on the other. People were desperately concerned about the impact the traffic would have, the access for emergency vehicles and the significant koala overlay on the block being ignored. I am glad to say that the Queensland government has moved to freeze this development until further consideration occurs.

I want to acknowledge in particular Margaret and James Hardy, Karen and Simon Clark, Maree and Neil Hickson, and Willa Venz, who worked very hard to mobilise the community, which knew nothing about this development until very early in February—and that in itself is a breakdown of communication which we should not tolerate from any level of government. When the state Labor member was informed, there was a very quick series of community meetings, and another one is planned for this Saturday. It looks like the community has succeeded in having the koala overlay considered. At the present time, with only 12 car parks proposed for 20 units, anyone could look at those plans and see that there will be traffic chaos, as would be the case with any 20-unit development. The notion that people who live in public housing do not own motor vehicles I think is a thing of the past. This is outer metropolitan urban living, and virtually everyone owns a car in this day and age.

I would like to see those vehicle-to-dwelling ratios adhered to. Even if it is a state government spending federal government stimulus money, that does not allow them to steamroll a local council. I would like to have those laws protected in particular cases. The corridors of koala vegetation overlays in the very delicate ecologies of outer metropolitan Brisbane, where our koalas travel from, say, Thorneside to Birkdale and through to Belmont, need to be very carefully protected. We can do environmentally sensitive development if we think about it. It takes a little bit more time; it takes a bit more care from the state offices. But we can solve this homelessness problem with more public housing, which is welcomed in my electorate, without necessarily destroying valuable koala feeding trees and their root systems. Certainly it is as simple as can be. Moving a retaining wall, altering the foundations and moving car parks into locations where they will not harm trees would be a very noble objective and we would still have a happy community welcoming public housing instead of what has happened in this case, which has been the reverse.

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