The skeletal remains of a 75-year-old man lay in a central Perth state housing unit for up to two years despite neighbours urging housing department officials next door to check on him.
The man's remains were found on Thursday slumped against the bed in his Wellington Street unit by a Department of Housing worker.
The discovery has prompted state opposition housing spokesman Mark McGowan to demand the government conduct a full audit to ensure no other people are lying dead, dying or suffering in state-provided homes.
But Premier Colin Barnett says that's a gross overreaction and, sad though the case is, it is not the responsibility of Homeswest to look after the health and welfare of tenants.
Police say it appears the man died of natural causes and are preparing a report for the WA coroner.
WA Housing Minister Troy Buswell has asked his department to investigate why the central city Perth death was not discovered sooner.
Neighbours say they repeatedly urged housing department officials in the office block next to the apartments to check on the man after they noticed mail piling up.
"What about inspections? There's no duty of care. It's like that woman in Sydney, nobody cares about anyone else anymore," one woman told The West Australian newspaper.
In Sydney this week, police found the body of an elderly woman who had lain dead in her Surry Hills home in the central city for eight years.
Two people who live on the same floor as the dead man said they voiced their concerns to the department three times in the past two years, most recently six weeks ago.
"Our lease agreement says we are supposed to have an inspection every six months," one said.
"We've only had one in three years."
Mr McGowan told reporters on Saturday that West Australians would be shocked that a fellow citizen had died and been left in his home for two years without being discovered.
"It defies belief that we can have a state government office next door to this property, complaints made and this property not investigated and inspected."
Mr McGowan said there were about 40,000 Homeswest properties in WA and about half of them occupied by aged pensioners, underlying the need for regular inspections.
He urged the government to do a full audit to "make sure this doesn't happen again and that there aren't other people dead or suffering or dying".
But Mr Barnett said demanding a full audit was a gross overreaction and he was sure Mr Buswell and Homeswest would ensure inspections were carried out to avoid a repeat of a very sad situation.
"It just shows, not many friends, not many family and unfortunately some people are totally alone," Mr Barnett told reporters.
"I don't think we need to exaggerate this, sad as it is, it's a fairly unusual occurrence."
He said he assumed the man was receiving pension payments that were automatically going to pay his rent.
The premier said inspections clearly didn't happen and that would be investigated.
"But it is not something that is in a sense the fault of Homeswest.
"It's not their responsibility to look after the health and welfare of tenants. They provide housing at subsidised rates, that's their prime role," Mr Barnett said.
9 Jul 2011
Stories like this usually do not make it out to the press, or rather the press does not focus attention to these stories, as this undermines authority.
Government departments, handling welfare out to the community, in this case the Department of Housing, are NOT interested in the well being of the recipient, but rather in the funds from the government.
The social welfare workers are primarily interested in securing their role, rather than administering the duties to the needy.
There is an extreme indifference to the plight of the recipients, by the workers but rather a high focus, on smoke breaks, social event co-ordination, and various other distraction on the internet.
The mass media tends to 'overlook' these realities of the public service, but rather focuses on petty crime stories and entertainment trash articles.
