Mr WETTENHALL (Tuesday 13 April 2010) (12.27 pm): The decision to locate social housing at Palm Cove and Trinity Park, both suburbs of Cairns in the electorate of Barron River, has generated a bitter debate in the community between supporters and opponents of social housing. Residents have formed associations to oppose the developments, held public meetings and protests and taken out full-page advertisements in the Cairns Post to prosecute their arguments. They do not have unanimous support in their individual communities but, as best such matters can be judged, they have strong support.

Each development has been approved under the federal government's economic stimulus plan. Although some say the global financial crisis is over and there is no longer a need for government stimulus, I cannot agree that that is the case in Cairns.

In our region unemployment is running at around 12.5 per cent, still well above the state and national figures. In the far north the construction industry, along with tourism, has been hit hard by the economic downturn. Australian and Queensland government construction projects have kept bread on the table for hundreds of Cairns working families.

Elected representatives have been lobbied hard for additional government support to be provided at this critical time in the economic cycle. The social housing projects at Trinity Park and Palm Cove themselves will provide jobs for 100 workers.

Opponents of the developments argue that the developments are too remote from services such as supermarkets, medical services and other specialist supports and that the configuration and design of the multiunit projects are unsuitable. It is perfectly legitimate for residents to raise such concerns, and I believe many are genuinely concerned for the welfare of those who will be housed in these new apartments.

In the end, however, questions about access to services such as Centrelink, doctors, supermarkets and public transport are questions of degree. The northern beaches area is well serviced by a range of public and private services including transport, medical and dental clinics, a community health centre, primary and secondary schools, a university, police, fire and ambulance stations, libraries and a host of sporting and recreational facilities. At Trinity Park itself, a short walk from the new development, construction of a new purpose-built community centre funded by the Bligh government is shortly to commence.

Whilst there may be locations where some of those facilities might be closer, I cannot accept that, because they are not within a stone's throw of the new homes, the chosen locations are inappropriate.

Of the some 2,000 people on the waiting list for social housing in the Cairns area, 663 have expressed a preference to live on the northern beaches. Why should it be assumed by anyone that their preference is misguided or ill informed?

I can understand that residents are aggrieved because the projects have been approved without public consultation. I would have preferred it to have been otherwise, but that is the law where, as is the case here, the projects have been determined not to be substantially inconsistent with the local planning scheme.

I have represented the concerns of the residents to both the Premier and the minister, arranged for the minister to meet with them in Cairns and I am representing their concerns today in this chamber. As a result of those meetings, the minister has given various assurances to residents about the projects.

However, just as I have a duty to represent those who oppose the projects, I have a duty to represent the 663 people who want to live in the northern beaches but who cannot.

I have one additional duty, which is my duty to defend one very basic and fundamental Aussie principle. That principle is that there should be no place in our nation where someone by reason of their lack of wealth, a disability or who are elderly, frail or vulnerable is made to feel unwelcome.

Therefore, I utterly reject and condemn the view that has been expressed that the residents of those new homes will not be welcomed and never will be welcomed.

Furthermore, I utterly reject and condemn the comments made by the member for Burdekin, who is currently the LNP spokesperson for community services, who has described these social housing projects as ghettoes.

Whether or not the location chosen for the new homes is the best and whether or not the process could have been improved, I for one will be there to welcome the new residents of Trinity Park and Palm Cove.