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Last Update: Thursday, August 25, 2005. 3:46pm (AEST)
Overcrowding central to Palm Island's problems: reportA Queensland parliamentary committee has found that a critical shortage of housing on Palm Island, off Townsville in north Queensland, is behind many of the community's problems. Premier Peter Beattie set up the Palm Island Select Committee in April to investigate the issues which led to last year's riot and other problems in the largely Aboriginal community. The committee's report, tabled in Parliament today, contains 65 recommendations. It says overcrowding leads to violence, poor education and health, and the local council should not be responsible for housing. The committee says the council is expected to provide a far greater range of services than other local governments and needs ongoing help. The report recommends that the Government relinquish ownership of the island's retail store because the island has no economic base to generate income. It says the resulting high unemployment causes drug and alcohol abuse which then aggravates the problems caused by the overcrowding.
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