MOUNT Isa's MP has slammed the Newman government's discontinuation of Queensland's Tenants Advice and Advocacy Service (TAASQ).
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Member for Mount Isa Robbie Katter said terminating the "critical housing service" was another example of the Brisbane-centric government's centralisation plan.
"Not only will two jobs be lost and their years of valuable intellectual property, but a service will be gone that handled 15,052 inquiries in the past year, plus 384 from the government's Department of Housing, and hosted tenancy education meetings for nearly 5000 more.
"The Tenants Advice and Advocacy Services in Mount Isa was the agency for the Residential Tenancies Authority.
"Now the nearest RTA office, which will handle those thousands of complaints from locals seeking help with their housing, is in Brisbane.
"I think it is highly unlikely that many of the clients in lower socio-economic groups would be keen to call Brisbane and discuss their local housing."
Mr Katter said RTA clients had told him the service was unaware of it's new role when they had called.
"The government claims the money it saves will be put back into public housing," he said.
"This doesn't seem sensible when in Mount Isa, the total cost of the office is $220,000 a year, which is not enough to buy a family house here.
"TAASQ is an essential frontline service that assists people to maintain their private market tenancies, and keep them off the Queensland government's social housing waiting list."
Mr Katter said the TAASQ provided advocacy for tenants beyond what the RTA could offer, and was especially important for young people, seniors, newly-arrived migrants and renters with disabilities.
"Whilst I appreciate the government's focus on finding funds to build much-needed social housing, ceasing funding to TAASQ will see more private market issues unresolved, pushing people onto the homeless and social housing lists.
"Discontinuation of TAASQ will see the long-term cost of increased tenant/landlord disputes going to civil claims court, loss felt most by the disadvantage in regional centres."
Mr Katter said he had written to Housing Minister Bruce Flegg, strongly urging him to reverse the decision.
