Provide more houses for Warralong: McGowan

The State Government should provide extra houses to ease overcrowding in Warralong, Opposition Leader Mark McGowan says.

He said State Government homes in the remote Aboriginal community 120km south-east of Hedland were old and too few in number.

“The last house was put in there 20-to-25 years ago, yet the population has doubled since then,” he said.

“So additional houses should be provided and that shouldn’t be a hard thing for the Government to do – we have transportable houses these days.”

Mr McGowan’s call comes after Premier Colin Barnett visited Warralong in April around the time the State Government had begun to back away from comments that some remote communities might close due to reductions in funding.

Labor Mining and Pastoral MLC Stephen Dawson said residents spoke with Mr Barnett about the overcrowding and their hopes to fix the lighting on the community basketball court.

Mr Dawson said the lighting had been problematic for three years but was important because it allowed the Warralong kids to exercise after dark when the heat of the day cooled off.

“They showed them (these problems) ... and nothing has happened and that is very disappointing,” he said.

Mr McGowan said the Labor Party would raise the issues in State Parliament.