Warren Entsch says there's a stench in the air over public housing

In what seems like an extremely dodgy press heading, Warren-I-want-my-old-job-back-Entsch, has accused the the State government of muscling in on the local Cairns Police, amidst the political hot potato: the Bluewater and Palm Cove public housing projects.

"A ROTTEN STENCH IS DEVELOPING," the media alert screamed, as Entsch said there were new revelations about how much the State Government paid for land, along with research into the design and fit out of public housing units. He says they are close to being corrupt.

"I've been reliably informed the land at Palm Cove has been purchased by the Queensland Government for $1.3 million, when it had been on the market for a long period of time for just $1 million and had not sold due to the down turn in property prices," LNP candidate for Leichhardt, Warren Entsch says. “In addition, the land at Trinity Park cost the government $1.045 million.”

“So here you have a Government agency paying for land well above asking price, indeed premium price, in the middle of a down turn. Then the Stimulus Package website states that 'the 19 unit development in post code 4979 is $5.8 million.' The Minister is quoted as saying the cost will be $5.6 million.”

“So, if you take $1.3 million and $1.045 million from $5.6 million, you are left with $3.25 million to actually build the units,” Entsch says.

“I am now informed by a very reputable local builder who has closely studied the plans for the site at Trinity Park, who advised me, with regard to the cost of building the units (without the land costs) there, that, ‘it looks like the government is paying over $2,650 per square metre, which is extraordinary; considering they are finished to a very basic level - the balconies are raw concrete, the interior floors show vinyl (lino) and they have a single bathroom.’”

Entsch said that in comparison, the builder stated that he was able to build substantial ‘up market’ units for considerably less cost.

“In fact, what he said to me was, ‘to compare with that, we built luxury units including car parks, driveways, landscaping and fencing, and a pool - and these cost $1,833 per square metre for a very, very classy finish, no expenses spared,' ” Warren Entsch says.

It would appear that either the Queensland Government, through the Department of Community Services & Housing, and the Housing Minister, Karen Struthers, have not known what they are doing, have not done their homework or have engaged in malfeasance that is entirely inappropriate.
According to Entsch, the Queensland Project Services had purchased 40 homes as house and land packages, between September and January of this year.

“If, as part of the Stimulus Package, they had instead purchased land and engaged local builders to construct the homes, there would have been 8 to 10 months of solid work for at least 2 full building crews, with all their tradesmen and labourers,” Mr Entsch said. “Instead we have a situation where the easy option is taken with, it would appear, very little – if any – regard for the original purpose of the Stimulus Package.”

"There is a very unhealthy stench starting to emanate from these projects,” Entsch says.

However he says that the latest and most farcical revelation from the public housing debacle in Cairns is the manipulation of police powers in an attempt to stifle public resistance.

"I am extremely disgusted to hear that a resident of the Northern Beaches had been hit with a fine for tooting his horn at workers on the site at Trinity Park as he drove past," Warren Entsch says.

A local resident has been fined $160 for the ‘use of horn other than permitted’.

“Obviously the State Government Minister has primed her on-site minions and the police to ‘go hard’ on any public dissent in the area,” Entsch says. “Such heavy handed and gross responses are beyond the pale and smack of Stalinist type reaction to legitimate public concerns about a grossly mismanaged undertaking.”

“What next for concerned residents? Is it a one way trip to the Gulag? It would appear, that’s the direction these political clowns are heading.”