Ms GAMBARO (5:03 PM) —The Queensland Minister for Public Works and Housing recently told the Queensland parliament that the public housing waiting lists were at an all-time high in Queensland. We are at crisis point with public housing in Queensland, he said, with some people waiting for up to 10 years. In fact, according to the minister, we are facing conditions that are far worse than the conditions faced in the Great Depression. In true form, he levied the blame not at his own government's cut in state funding for public housing but at the federal government.

I can confirm for the minister that the waiting list for public housing in Deception Bay in my electorate, for example, is indeed growing—from three to four months in the past year to 24 months. And the reason for this surge in the waiting list has more to do with state government revenue collection and funding cuts than any fictitious cuts in federal funding. A constituent from Deception Bay recently rang me and was very concerned that there were over 30 vacant public housing dwellings in this suburb while she knew of people who had been on the waiting list a long time. It seemed rather odd, she said to me, so I investigated further.

I was surprised to learn that in Deception Bay the state government is conducting what they call community renewal—in other words, it is selling off public housing dwellings at a time when the Queensland minister for public housing is telling state parliament that we are at crisis point. So, while the state government swells the coffers, the waiting lists grow because availability declines. When availability declines, more people stay put and remain in their present accommodation, even if it is not in an ideal location, rather than risk becoming homeless altogether. As a result, waiting lists grow and keep growing. The situation is not good. Christmas for an increasing number of families is beginning to resemble a Dickens tale of Christmas past, rather than `It's great in the sunshine state'.

Public housing in Deception Bay is currently at 31 per cent and in neighbouring Redcliffe it is 20 per cent. It is interesting to note that a lot of these figures are the result of a huge expansion in public housing in the lead-up to last year's federal election. It amazes me that, according to the Queensland minister, almost 28,000 people are listed on the public housing waiting list when in the 2000-01 financial year—just before the federal election—public housing development in my marginal Liberal seat of Petrie flourished. In that year alone, 17 separate dwellings, including duplexes, apartments and one five-bedroom detached house, were built on the Redcliffe Peninsula. I have never seen such a flurry of public housing development. Yet in the 12 months to June this year, after the federal election, only one three-bedroom dwelling has been constructed as part of the public housing program. A surge one year, a sell-off the next—and in the midst of a crisis. Where is the forward thinking in that? But it doesn't stop there.

While chiding the federal government for our supposed cut in public housing, the state minister failed to add that his own government, the Queensland government, had cut over $600,000 from public housing expenditure in the current financial year. There are waiting lists in public housing, Minister, but remember: charity begins at home. The federal government provides funding to state and territory governments for public housing as part of the Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement, the CSHA. Over the last four years of the current agreement, which ends in June next year, the Commonwealth government will have provided $4 billion to states and territories.

Public housing funding is allocated to each state on the basis of a per capita funding formula that takes into account the reduced opportunities for economies of scale, particularly in the smaller states. In 2001-02, the Commonwealth provided almost $200.4 million to Queensland under the CSHA. The Queensland government provided $66.57 million in state matching funds. But, in 2002-03, Queensland will receive almost $202 million in Commonwealth funding—an increase of almost 10 per cent, and 19.6 per cent of total CSHA funding. In contrast, the Queensland state government is to provide $65.93 million in funding. That is a decrease on the previous year of almost 10 per cent, which is a shame.

What is interesting is that, while the federal government increase their contribution by almost $2 million, the state government cut their contribution to this agreement by $640,000. In effect, Queensland has had an increase of just $1.5 million and it has been all Commonwealth money. In Queensland, under the CSHA, Commonwealth per capita spending in 2002-03 will be $54.96 compared to the national average of $52.44. In contrast, the Queensland government will spend $17.96 per capita on this agreement while the average expenditure in other states and territories is $18.34. But public housing assistance does not stop with CSHA. In the financial year to June 2002, low-income earners in Queensland received 25.5 per cent of the rent assistance for all of Australia, which amounted to $463 million. In this financial year, the Commonwealth is contributing 60.3 per cent, which is about $27.69 million, to the Commonwealth-state Supported Accommodation Assistance Program. The state government contributed 39.7 per cent or $18.23 million. This is a state government continually painting the federal government as the bogyman, and this seems to be the recurring feature of the state government's dogma on funding.

But we need to look at a very interesting snapshot of the Queensland `smart state' government's report card on funding. We need to look at a number of portfolios. In the 2000-01 state budget, the Queensland state government cut funds from public hospitals by $20 million, and then it blamed the federal government for the cuts when they had just received a record $1.25 billion from the Howard government in that year—an increase of 33 per cent since 1997. The Queensland government was that very bright government that came up with the idea that, in order to improve teaching standards, they would pay $50,000 to underperforming teachers to leave the profession rather than investing in the future of Queensland education by delivering funding for schools, students and teachers. This year's Queensland state budget even failed to match the increases by the federal government on state education and it earned the wrath of the Queensland Teachers Union. The QTU ran a full-page ad in the Sunday Mail on 23 June announcing:

It seems that Queensland, the so-called `smart state', is not so smart after all in delivering funds to those who need them the most. Funds are needed in areas such as public hospitals, state education and public housing. The Queensland minister might claim that almost $110 million is being ripped out of public housing by the federal government, but it is really the Queensland government that is ripping funds out of public housing and it is the Queensland government that will stand to make millions of dollars from the sale of 30 public housing dwellings in Deception Bay. Does this sound like a government that really cares about displaced families at the most important and vulnerable family time of the year? Does this sound like a government that is serious about providing solutions to a crisis which the minister has likened to the Great Depression? Sadly, for the sake of hundreds of Queensland families, it does not appear to be.

If the Queensland government were serious about this issue, it would stop selling those dwellings and focus on delivering services rather than on raising revenue. Perhaps we should rename Queensland the `Scrooge state' because there is nothing smart about how the Queensland government is dealing with this issue. If the Queensland government is serious about dealing with this issue and not blanketing it, it needs to show that to the Queensland people. It needs to be honest, it needs to be serious about delivering services to needy families and it needs to re-think its revenue-raising community renewal projects at a time when people are experiencing huge waiting lists and displacement. It really has no excuse to cry poor because it is being given $5 billion worth of reasons in GST revenue in this financial year alone to deliver services to Queenslanders who need those services the most.