Australian Greens Senator and Housing Spokesperson, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, has called the Assistant Minister for Community Housing, Homelessness and Community Servicer, Luke Howarth MP, completely out of touch for his comments around putting a 'positive spin' to homelessness and housing stress.
Senator Faruqi said:
"Minister Howarth is completely out of touch if he thinks there is any way to positively spin the number of people who are homeless. What an incredibly insensitive gaffe.
"The fact that this Minister thinks that the housing crisis only affects a small number of people is very worrying. What about the more than 118,000 people who are homeless, the 189,000 people on public housing waiting lists or the more than a million Australians in housing stress.
"Instead of trying to spin the homeslessness problem, the Federal Government must show leadership in tackling the housing crisis by making an unprecedented investment in social and community housing.
"The Greens have a plan to build 500,000 new public and community homes through a Federal Housing Trust. Everyone has the right to a safe, secure and permanent home.
"Crisis accommodation is important but isn't a long term solution. We need to build more affordable housing to ensure everyone has a roof over their head," she concluded.
