PLANS to build public housing in exclusive estates and resort towns - away from transport, schools, shops and medical facilities - are creating lose-lose situations for neighbourhoods and tenants, angry residents say.

Several councillors, including Cairns Mayor Val Schier, have also questioned the placement of public housing at Trinity Park’s Bluewater Estate and Palm Cove, far from vital services.

Eight developments are being rolled out in six Cairns suburbs and at Innisfail, often without neighbours’ knowledge, as part of the Federal Government’s national economic stimulus package.

Public housing is planned for sites at Trinity Park, Palm Cove, Westcourt, Edmonton, Parramatta Park, Earlville and Innisfail.

Under the plan, more than $5 billion is being spent across the country, with more than $80 million heading to the Far North.

But in a situation likened to the Federal Government’s bungled insulation rebate scheme, strict assessment criteria used to assess appropriate sites has allegedly been ignored so work on the projects can quickly
begin.

Residents of Bluewater Estate are considering a class action lawsuit to stop 19 two-bedroom units being built on Harbour Drive, but claim their issues are part of a bigger problem rife across the country.

Public housing projects are exempt from the usual community consultation and council approval processes, and residents are only learning of the plans through rumours and leaked
information.

Bluewater Estate resident committee spokeswoman Lisa Dunkerton said she believed the rush to get the program rolling meant each application was not properly assessed.

Neither Federal nor State government representatives are required to visit a site of proposed public housing and Mrs Dunkerton said she was told officers in Cairns had not visited the Harbour Drive site.

"How is it helpful for needy people to put them in expensive suburbs, 20km away from services that are relevant to their needs in the city, with very limited public transport, no public schools within walking distance, no medical facilities, no job opportunities, and most critically, it is across the road from a tavern," Mrs Dunkerton said.

"How that site meets all this (public housing) criteria beggars belief, because it doesn’t.

"We are contending the application was not assessed, because they are either too swamped and therefore can’t cope, or it has slipped in under the radar because these developers are very powerful."

Among the criteria needed for a suitable public housing site is close proximity to vital services including transport, schools, shops and medical facilities – all of which are lacking from Harbour Drive, Mrs Dunkerton said.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Communities said every project was assessed on its merits and reiterated nothing had been finalised for the Harbour Drive site.

"Projects were identified within the context of the need to provide timely economic stimulus aimed at supporting economic growth and jobs," she said.

She said it required the Director-General’s approval, which had not yet been given for the Trinity Park project.

Mrs Dunkerton said the situation had striking similarities to another of the Federal Government’s stimulus initiatives – the troubled home insulation rebate scheme.

"The parallels here are undeniable. People died because (the Government) was in such a frenzy to shell out huge sums of money as fast as possible that checks and balances weren’t put in place," she said.

"This is a no-win for anybody except the pockets of the developers."

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