Arabic version: موظف حكومي متهم بتجاوز قائمة انتظار الإسكان الاجتماعي

A 55-year-old public servant is accused of illegally offering a social housing tenancy to her intimate partner, allowing them to bypass a large number of applicants who were on the waitlist for a home.

According to ABC News, the woman was arrested last week by the WA Police’s Financial Crimes Squad at her residence in Clarkson, in Perth’s north. The alleged incident took place on September 1 last year at her workplace in Mirrabooka.

She has been charged with one count of ‘public officer acts corruptly in performance/discharge of functions’ and is due before the Perth Magistrates Court on Wednesday. WA Police Detective Superintendent Peter Foley emphasized the severity of the situation, stating that such actions betray public trust and undermine the integrity of the public service.

Foley noted that individuals who misuse their authority, especially those managing housing resources, create significant disadvantages for vulnerable members of the WA community. He highlighted that social housing applicants could spend as long as five years on waitlists, with the average wait time for a social housing home in WA being almost three years as of December 2025. There were 23,110 applications on the waitlist, including almost 8,000 priority applications.