Smokescreen from de Brenni to hide crisis accommodation failure
· Mick de Brenni’s latest announcement a smokescreen to distract from his failures in crisis accommodation
· Minister’s “crackdown” to ensure boarding houses comply with strong laws should be part of his day-to-day job
· Minister’s office clearly in turmoil with loss of two Chiefs-of-Staff in as many months
Annastacia Palaszczuk’s floundering Housing Minister Mick de Brenni’s latest smokescreen is a shabby attempt to hide his crisis accommodation failure for victims of domestic violence.
LNP Prevention of Family and Domestic Violence Shadow Minister Ros Bates said the announcement of Mr de Brenni’s terms of reference for his investigation into unregistered boarding houses was another attempt to cover for his own behaviour and that of his senior ministerial staff.
“Mr de Brenni’s announcement must be seen for what it really is – a total furphy to cover for his own failures,” Ms Bates said.
“He’s trying to make a virtue out of a necessity by claiming a crackdown is needed to make boarding houses comply with state legislation that was strengthened way back in 2002.
“This is what the government should be doing every day – it’s what this Minister should have been doing for the last two years.
“It is also the role of the government to provide sufficient crisis accommodation to meet the needs of victims of domestic violence.
“This is clearly not being done on the Gold Coast and in many other areas of the state.
“Sadly all we’ve seen from the Minister’s office is a witch-hunt led by union-aligned advisors who’ve been caught out sneakily using private emails to harass and bully service providers.”
Ms Bates said no one disagreed the Minister and the Department should be investigating operations of “illegal boarding houses”.
“Given that the strengthened laws have been in place for the last 14 years, it’s a bit disingenuous for the Minister to now be offering amnesty for landlords to comply,” she said.
“The Minister’s office is clearly in turmoil with the loss of leadership and direction through the resignation of yet another chief-of-staff, the second in two months.
“Instead of issuing smokescreen statements and running attacks from private emails, the Minister and his senior staff should be listening to the likes of ‘My Friends’ Place’ and make a genuine attempt to deal with the serious lack of services under his watch.”