John Carey hits out at Liberal preselection nominee Brent Fleeton, labelling social media posts cruel, nasty

Housing Minister John Carey has launched into a parliamentary tirade against a Liberal candidate for preselection, describing his social media posts about homelessness as “cruel and venomous”. Speaking during Question Time on Thursday, Mr Carey, the Member for Perth, hit out at Nedlands Liberal preselection nominee Brent Fleeton, accusing the City of Perth councillor of failing to show compassion or sympathy for people experiencing homelessness. Holding up a printout of a social media post, Mr Carey said Cr Fleeton had promoted a statement encouraging residents to make complaints about the Ruah homelessness service on James Street. “It is only through consistent reporting of incidents can action be taken against Ruah,” Mr Carey quoted the post as stating. Mr Carey also claimed Cr Fleeton had said social housing tenants “bring noise complaints and declining property values” and had posted a photo on Instagram of a homeless person sleeping rough in Sydney. “Apparently, you don’t need to show compassion when you’re vying for preselection for seats,” Mr Carey said. “I’m talking about City of Perth councillor Brent Fleeton. Someone who shows no compassion, no sympathy for those doing it tough on our streets. “This is nasty. This is venomous.” In a personal response, Cr Fleeton said homelessness services should not be based in the middle of a commercial and residential precinct such as James Street. “When Ruah’s James Street centre opened, I did my job as their council representative to remind locals that the operator had a management plan for which they were accountable for,” he said. That’s the document they relied upon to allay neighbourhood concerns and which ultimately was approved by the then Minister. Now if the Minister thinks it’s unreasonable for locals to raise complaints about security, noise, litter, trespassing, I think that’s arrogant and out of touch. Why have a management plan and complaint line if the Minister doesn’t want you to use it? “The Minister needs to spend less time checking out my Instagram account and more time doing his job. It’s clear to me he’s got too much on his plate.” The stoush comes a day after the Ruah facility was blamed by a neighbouring hotel as a factor in its decision to close, with its owner, Daniel Godoy, claiming anti-social behaviour stemming from the centre was costing his business. In a statement from RUAH, a spokesperson accused the hotel of being a “particularly egregious” neighbour. “Ruah works hard to be a good neighbour and has positive relationships with our neighbours and we will continue to do so,” the spokesperson said. “We have worked so hard to be good neighbours, but it is evident they do not have empathy for the people we work with or for our staff.”