Mining monies should fund housing: Mayor

Mining royalties should be spent on affordable housing in regional communities where residents are sleeping under bridges, a southern Queensland mayor says.

Western Downs mayor Ray Brown says residents in his region, which includes 23 towns and 99 small

communities, are major casualties of the mining boom.

A state government proposal to spend half of the royalties it receives from the liquefied natural gas industry on an education trust fund should not be at the expense of towns struggling with housing and job shortages, he says.

"I don't want to see all the royalties chewed up in everything else when we have people living under bridges," Mr Brown said today.

"We have to make sure some of that royalty money comes back into the region.

"Rents are going through the roof, people are being displaced from caravan parks and people are being evicted from their homes because rents have gone up 40 per cent.

"We need affordable housing now."

Premier Anna Bligh this week announced the Mines for Minds policy, which will set aside 50 per cent of state royalties from LNG activities for education programs for Queensland students.

It's expected to quarantine $1.8 billion over the next 10 years, and more beyond that, if Labor is re-elected at the next election, due by March.

The mining union says Ms Bligh's education fund policy overlooks fundamental problems facing mining towns.

CFMEU Queensland secretary Jim Valery says the government is yet to tackle the crippling rents, troubling fly-in, fly-out working practices, population imbalances and community unrest spreading across the state.

"At first glance it seems like a bid to buy votes and again ignore the serious policy challenges we confront if we are going to get the next mining boom right," he said.

Mr Brown said there are no rental homes available in all but one town in his jurisdiction where there are 81 energy projects involving 37 companies.

"It's not the mining boys who are struggling to find homes. They're the ones who have actually pushed all other residents and service personnel out," Mr Brown said.

He said his council will release a housing strategy report in December.

Ms Bligh said today there will be plenty of money left in the tin to address social and other issues affecting mining communities.

"We're not talking about putting every single royalty into this (education initiative). Of course there'll be additional royalties to cope with growth, to put into hospitals, to put into roads," she told ABC radio.

AAP

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