Labor is hurting its own voters

Compared to the Rockhampton and Townsville projects this was a real project, ready to roll now and meeting real needs in a depressed community.

Queensland’s social housing waiting list is huge. As of last count there are 15,891 applications involving 30,426 individuals.

No society has a higher duty than to guarantee that all its citizens have a roof over their head, and the people on this wait list are the constituency that Labor claims to represent. (Labor holds all state seats in this area, which includes Woodridge, its safest.)

This project would also have injected huge sums into a local economy where unemployment is 6.5% and on an upward trend.

If you take the government’s cost to build 70 houses as indicative, then the Logan Renewal Initiative would have injected around $380 million, in present-day dollars into the local economy – that’s $19 million a year on average – not counting stamp duty on the sale of some of the housing, commissions and payments to local professionals, and payroll tax.

That’s also not counting the multiplier effect as the construction expenditure cascades through the local economy.

And we know demand is there, because the wait list exists.

While it’s a tragedy for the local economy, tradies, and other local professionals, it is also a tragedy for the people living in the area.

Much of the housing is no longer suited for its original use, and according to reports in the Courier Mail, very poorly maintained.

The redevelopment would have broken up the concentration of rental housing, bringing new home-owners into the area. A larger population also brings other services, like public transport and shops.

With home ownership sinking to 64.9%, a new post war low, the project would also have filled a gap in the affordable housing market from the 770 houses on-sold to pay for the redevelopment and extension of the social housing stock.

There are many reasons for the dearth of affordable housing, with lack of supply being the most significant. If the state government has en globo residential land it can act as a swing producer, helping to cap rises in land prices.