NOMADS SHOW COMMONWEALTH RENT ASSISTANCE SCHEME NEEDS OVERHAUL

Housing Minister Robert Schwarten called for an inquiry into whether the Commonwealth Rent Assistance was helping the supply of affordable housing, saying that grey nomads claiming rent assistance to pay for caravan park fees while on holiday was just one example of the Commonwealth scheme being abused.

“The Commonwealth Rent assistance scheme is wide open to all sorts of shenanigans. I know that much of the dollars that are poured into it are just not helping the supply of affordable housing,” said Mr Schwarten.

“Its not just grey nomads trekking Australia charging up their holiday costs to the Commonwealth Government.”

“I have heard of parents who ‘sell’ their home to their children, then rent the homes back from their own children and claim rent assistance. That’s a rort in my book, and people are getting away with it.

“The problem is rent assistance it is not like Medicare, where you have to be an official registered provider of proper medical services to get funds.

“There is no checking of landlord credentials. You can get rent assistance no matter what the standard of the homes. So landlords offering sub standard accommodation can still receive funds coming from Commonwealth rent assistance.

“Further, rent assistance goes to the tenant, so there is no guarantee it is passed on to the housing provider. Some tenants end up not paying the rent at all, and pocket the money.”

Mr Schwarten said the most worrying aspect of rent assistance is that it does not build homes.

“Rent assistance pours money into the private rental market in the belief that it will provide low cost homes to rent. It is a dangerous fantasy.

“Successive reports by the federal government’s own Productivity Commission which warned of the danger in the Commonwealth putting funds into private rental at the expense of public housing have been ignored.

“Now there is a real shortage low cost rental housing. According to RTA figures, there are today 75,000 less homes to rent for less than $200 per week than there was at in the year 2000. That’s a drop of 40%.”

“Since I became Housing Minister the Commonwealth has poured over $2 billion poured into rent assistance. I could have built a lot of public housing with that money, but it has gone into the ether.”

Mr Schwarten said following a community Cabinet in April this year, he devised a plan – Homelink – which would provide 1000 new private low cost rental homes in Queensland.

“It would require funding and co-operation from all 3 levels of Government. The Federal Government needs to agree to pay the rent assistance direct to the owner of the homes instead of the tenant,” said Mr Schwarten.

“The Queensland Government has put its money on the table for this scheme – as yet nothing has been forthcoming from the Federal Government.”

Media Contacts: David Shankey (07) 3237 1832