The Minister for Housing’s claims today that Western Australia has 1,000 extra social houses are more spin with recent evidence indicating the number has actually fallen since Labor was elected, Shadow Minister for Housing Steve Martin said.
“Despite what they are telling us, Labor have spent the bulk of their time in government selling off and demolishing homes meant for social housing,” Mr Martin said.
“Now they are frantically trying to regain ground and bring us back to where we were six years ago.
“This is just another example of Labor’s media team putting out a release lacking in transparency in an attempt to hide the true impact of Labor’s poor record on housing and homelessness.”
Recent questions asked in Parliament and details discovered by media investigations have revealed that there are fewer social housing properties today than there were in 2017.
In June 2017, there were 44,087 social housing properties in Western Australia, but figures obtained by The West Australian revealed that there were only 43,380 properties in November 2022.
“I call on the Minister to publish the total number of social housing properties currently owned by the state government, and how many of these homes are sitting empty,” Mr Martin said.
“Labor has fallen behind and are struggling to keep up with housing demand. They have dropped the ball and we are now suffering the consequences.
“The housing and homelessness crisis has reached breaking point but the McGowan Labor Government has continually overpromised and underdelivered.
“If they are serious about solving the crisis, Labor must find a way to drastically increase housing stock overall, rather than just returning us to a baseline from 2017.”
