To: Queensland Human Rights Commission Submission

To: Queens­land Human Rights Com­mis­sion
From: Mar­garet Ruth Fran­cic
Sub­ject: For­mal Human Rights Com­plaint – Dis­crim­i­na­tion, Neglect, and Abuse by Hous­ing Queens­land

Dear Com­mis­sion­ers,

I am sub­mit­ting this com­plaint regard­ing sys­temic dis­crim­i­na­tion, degra­da­tion, and neglect that I have suf­fered under the man­age­ment of Hous­ing Queens­land in Biggen­den. I reside in Unit 4 of a 16-unit com­plex, pri­mar­i­ly occu­pied by elder­ly and dis­abled ten­ants.

SUMMARY OF COMPLAINT

This sub­mis­sion out­lines breach­es of my human rights and dig­ni­ty as a dis­abled woman. I have faced:

• Age and dis­abil­i­ty dis­crim­i­na­tion
• Denial of rea­son­able accom­mo­da­tion
• Spir­i­tu­al and cul­tur­al vio­la­tion
• Neglect of phys­i­cal care needs
• Ver­bal threats and emo­tion­al abuse
• Unac­count­able and unver­i­fied ten­ant records used against me

KEY INCIDENTS AND VIOLATIONS

1. Denial of Approved Hous­ing and Car­er Accom­mo­da­tion

• I was ini­tial­ly approved for a two-bed­room unit (Unit 16), but Hous­ing rescind­ed the offer on the grounds that I had not list­ed a car­er on the lease.
• My daugh­ter (aged 20) was refused as a car­er due to her age.
• A sec­ond offer of a male car­er in his 40s was also denied.
• Hous­ing informed me I must list a car­er aged 55–70. This is age dis­crim­i­na­tion and an impos­si­ble require­ment to meet.
• Unit 16 was instead giv­en to a man in his 60s, who had no known med­ical need at the time and had not applied for the Biggen­den region.

2. Rejec­tion of Unsafe and Inap­pro­pri­ate Alter­na­tive Unit

• I was lat­er offered anoth­er two-bed­room unit in town. This unit had been recent­ly paint­ed over to cov­er dam­age from a pre­vi­ous ten­ant who is now in jail for domes­tic vio­lence.
• The paint could not hide the inten­si­ty of what had hap­pened there—I could feel the emo­tion­al residue and it caused sig­nif­i­cant dis­tress.
• The unit also required me to pur­chase a wash­ing machine and dry­er, which I can­not afford.
• Fur­ther­more, it was over a kilo­me­tre from the hos­pi­tal, com­pared to my cur­rent home which is only 100 metres away.
• I also suf­fer from MMA (mul­ti­ple meat aller­gies). The unit was locat­ed just 100 metres from a cat­tle yard, which posed a seri­ous aller­gic and emo­tion­al risk.
• While I can tol­er­ate some ani­mals that have “desen­si­tised” to my system—like hors­es in my cur­rent environment—I am hyper­sen­si­tive to con­cen­trat­ed ani­mal expo­sure like cat­tle.
• I declined the unit due to these valid and dis­tress­ing rea­sons, yet I was pres­sured to accept it. I believe this refusal trig­gered Housing’s ongo­ing hos­til­i­ty and puni­tive atti­tude toward me.

3. Destruc­tion of My Spir­i­tu­al Shrine and Native Plants

• In May 2025, con­trac­tors, with­out law­ful notice or con­sul­ta­tion, entered my pri­vate yard and destroyed:
  • A religious/spiritual shrine built for heal­ing and con­nec­tion to nature.
  • Native trees and per­son­al cul­tur­al plant­i­ngs.
• This was a vio­la­tion of my spir­i­tu­al rights, cul­tur­al safe­ty, and emo­tion­al sta­bil­i­ty. It con­sti­tut­ed reli­gious dis­crim­i­na­tion and destruc­tion of per­son­al prop­er­ty.

4. Inabil­i­ty to Access Ade­quate Dis­abil­i­ty Sup­port

• I can­not safe­ly receive a live-in car­er due to my cur­rent one-bed­room unit design, where the bath­room and laun­groom is inside my bed­room, remov­ing all pri­va­cy.
• I require a cov­ered in area for my pets as it stood before these unwant­ed  and in breech of laws,  hor­rif­ic “ren­o­va­tions took place”
• I lack a bath­tub, which I require for chron­ic back and pain treat­ment.
• These con­di­tions were report­ed, but Hous­ing ignored the request and con­tin­ues to deny essen­tial accom­mo­da­tions.

5. Record Manip­u­la­tion and the “Pyra­mid of Kin­dling”

• After every phone or in-per­son inter­ac­tion, Hous­ing staff (notably Court­ney) log inter­nal notes into my file.
• These notes are not shared with ten­ants, not ver­i­fied, and have been used to deny me ser­vices or dis­cred­it my state­ments.
• There is no law­ful mech­a­nism to cor­rect or view these entries with­out sub­mit­ting FOI or legal requests.
• This cre­ates a pyra­mid of unseen kin­dling: each mis­rep­re­sent­ed note stacks harm­ful­ly until it shapes a false nar­ra­tive that can ruin lives.

6. Emo­tion­al Abuse and Threat­en­ing Behav­iour

• I have been sub­ject­ed to state­ments like “Hous­ing is com­ing to bull­doze it all” – caus­ing pan­ic, dis­tress, and emo­tion­al harm.
• Requests for doc­u­ments or access to my own hous­ing his­to­ry have been refused or delayed.
• My com­plaints are met with vague promis­es of “staff train­ing,” with no resti­tu­tion or change.

 

7 Incor­rect infor­ma­tion fur­nished

THE COMPLEX AT A GLANCE

• All 16 units house elder­ly or dis­abled ten­ants.
• Many are iso­lat­ed, some ter­mi­nal­ly ill or suf­fer­ing demen­tia.
• Younger peo­ple are sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly exclud­ed, even when apply­ing as car­ers.
• I have been denied even the basic dig­ni­ty of choos­ing some­one capa­ble of lift­ing or help­ing me.
• When I first moved here it took near­ly a year to desen­si­tise to the sur­round­ings due to my med­ical sen­si­tiv­i­ties.

REQUEST FOR RELIEF

• Inves­ti­ga­tion into sys­temic dis­crim­i­na­tion, espe­cial­ly around car­er approvals, unit allo­ca­tion, and dis­abil­i­ty accom­mo­da­tion.
• Reform of Hous­ing Queens­land’s inter­nal note-tak­ing sys­tems to ensure trans­paren­cy, ver­i­fi­ca­tion, and ten­ant review.
• For­mal recog­ni­tion of religious/spiritual rights and destruc­tion of sacred sites.
• Imme­di­ate recon­sid­er­a­tion of my need for a 2‑bedroom unit in the same com­plex with appro­pri­ate sup­port facil­i­ties.

I am hap­py to pro­vide pho­to­graph­ic evi­dence, cor­re­spon­dence, and signed state­ments upon request.

Sin­cere­ly,
Mar­garet Ruth Fran­cic
Ten­ant – Unit 4, Biggen­den Pub­lic Hous­ing Com­plex
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