McGowan says Freo ‘tent city’ organisers were on an ‘ego trip’

Mr McGowan said now the site was cleared and the people who had been living there were being managed by professionals, government agencies could work on opportunities available to them.

“It’s a mutual obligation situation, people need to also step up, they also need to be prepared to work with the agencies and do the right thing in terms of receiving accommodation,” he said.

Rough sleepers at Pioneer Park on Friday were visited by about a dozen Department of Communities workers who offered them short-term hotel stays ahead of the government swooping in to close the camp.

But some were worried they would have nowhere to go once their hotel accommodation ended.

Shantelle Saville, who had been living at the camp for about a fortnight with her partner Luke, said the workers had offered her a week-long hotel stay as they worked through her case file to find a more permanent solution.

But Ms Saville, who has been living on the streets on and off for three years, said she was worried she would end up with nowhere to go after the hotel stay ended.

Mr McGowan said there various forms of accommodation were being used but there was no quick and easy solution.

“We were trying to work with people there for weeks and we were getting people out, getting them into accommodation,” he said.

“The professional protesters who organised it were then getting other people in and drawing people out of accommodation where they were supported.

“We got reports people were being pulled out of supported accommodation on promises by the organisers they would get people a house immediately – you can’t have that where the organisers are making false promises to vulnerable people in order to cause disruption and trouble and therefore we intervened.”

Mr McGowan said the situation was complex, often involving people with longstanding problems such as addiction or mental health issues, and warned organisers against planning to set up a similar camp elsewhere in Perth.

“It’s not in the interests of the people that are there, it’s certainly not in the interests of public perception of people who are homeless,” he said.

“I’d say to the organisers, don’t do it, you’re not helping them, you’re not helping the cause, all you’re doing is getting TV attention because it gives you some sort of ego trip … you’re damaging the image of people who are homeless because the general public can get pretty cynical and all it does is abuse and violate and exploit the people that camp there.”

With less than two months until the state election, Mr McGowan said his government would continue to invest in public housing, spending a billion dollars on new and refurbished accommodation in response to the state’s homelessness issue.

“We’re refurbishing lots of houses across the state, the priority wait time has halved since we came to office so we’re managing those people on the priority list far more quickly and far more effectively,” he said.

Mr McGowan said the federal government had pulled out of supporting housing for Aboriginal people living in remote WA, which the state now had to backfill to the tune of $100 million a year.

Opposition Leader Zak Kirkup, who visited the camp on Tuesday, announced a funding blitz to create 100 emergency beds in Fremantle if elected to power in March.

The program would be part of the Liberal’s $57.7 million plan to refit hotels and backpackers to temporarily accommodate 500 rough sleepers statewide.

Speaking to the media at Pioneer Park, Mr Kirkup took the opportunity to lash the Premier over the comments, saying they lacked compassion and humanity.

“You can’t continue to deflect from this, you can’t suggest that these people are anarchists. They want help and they deserve it,” he said.

“We wouldn’t be in a situation where we have an extensive waitlist for social housing if the government hadn’t sold 1000 social houses in WA.“