2026-09-17
The Greens (WA) have denounced the Cook Labor Government’s orders to clear an informal homeless encampment in Rockingham as a heartbreaking symbol of almost a decade of housing policy failure.
The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) yesterday served roughly 50 people living at the encampment with orders to vacate by Tuesday next week.
Over the past six months, dozens of unhoused people have been living in cars, tents and caravans set up along Memorial Drive in Safety Bay.
It comes as WA’s rental affordability crisis continues to worsen, with recent data from Shelter WA showing that the median weekly rent in Rockingham ballooned by 94% between 2021 and 2025.
The Greens (WA) housing and homelessness spokesperson Tim Clifford MLC says the situation at Memorial Drive is a tragedy that betrays a decade of unambitious policy by WA Labor.
“A pox on both their houses.
“The Memorial Drive encampment is the outcome of almost 10 years of WA Labor’s total failure to deliver meaningful housing policy.
“When the McGowan Labor Government took office in 2017, there was hope that we would finally see some progress on homelessness after years of the Liberals’ neglect. That hope is now a tragic nightmare.
“It's no wonder homelessness is exploding in WA when the Cook Labor Government continues to fail to address its root causes.
“Yet again, this latest move does nothing to actually tackle WA’s homelessness crisis – it simply moves it elsewhere.
“For years, the Greens have been calling on measures to address this growing crisis, including prioritising public housing investment and builds; implementing a rent cap; imposing vacant property taxes; tackling the unsustainable growth of unhosted short-stays; and more funding for homelessness and wrap-around services.
“It’s all fallen on deaf ears. Instead, the Treasurer and Housing Minister continue to fetishise their bloated surpluses and prioritise the interests of investors over the community they claim to represent.
“The WA Liberals cannot shirk their responsibility either. Their approach of short-term solutions and cheap political point-scoring has done nothing but show a profound disrespect for the issue and the people impacted by it.
“We need more from our decision-makers than opportunistic selfies at Memorial Drive.
“We need more than a coordinated political campaign – like what the Liberals orchestrated with local councillor and former Liberal candidate Peter Hudson – to prosecute their self-serving political agenda that has no long-term solutions to speak of.
“The Greens are calling on the Cook Labor Government and DBCA to treat the people who’ve been living at the Memorial Drive encampment with decency and respect, and we urge them to take the meaningful action necessary to address homelessness at its root cause.”