Thousands of tenants who claim they live without running water and reliable power are suing the state government.
Photos of insect-infested, falling-apart state housing in the Kimberley are now evidence in a class action lawsuit.
Vivienne Gordon, who lives in Bayulu, a town of a few hundred people roughly 350 kilometres east of Broome, said some houses still didn’t have hot water.
“We want to make sure families have got everything working in the property, especially with the plumbing issues,” she said.
Law firm Slater and Gordon will represent thousands of Indigenous tenants in Federal Court.
They accuse WA’s Housing Authority of breaching residential tenancy, contract and consumer protection laws over 14 years.
“Yes we are paying rent in our communities and I think with anywhere, if you are paying rent you have the rights to get anything fixed in your property,” Gordon, from Bayulu, said.
Slater and Gordon class action principal Gemma Leigh-Dodds listed some of the alleged problems: “Reliable electricity, pervasive leak and plumbing issues, sewerage issues, working toilets and showers and stoves.”
Premier Roger Cook shifted focus, blaming the federal coalition for pulling money from the remote communities fund in 2018.
“My government put in a package of over $300 million to now move into that area and see what we can do to boost the quality of that housing,” he said.
The dispute is now headed all the way to the federal court.
“The state can explain any policy decision it likes. The problem is that it’s the landlord,” Leigh-Dodds said.
