Lived experience is so important in our policy decisions – from victims of crime to those challenged by mental illness, to those whose sporting prowess can help us build an Olympic Games.

But is being a renter alone enough to equip a minister to deal with the housing crisis?

Queensland is in the midst of a housing emergency, and the Reserve Bank’s decision to hold interest rates this week – but flag likely future rises – will do nothing to curb that.

This plight is engulfing 50,000 people, who now sit on the state housing waiting list, in addition to those who are clinging onto their homes as interest rates climb and fixed rates end.

And the State Government’s marketing line is that we need not fear – because they have a renter in charge!

Meaghan Scanlon, the State’s housing minister, is a remarkable talent. She’s only 30, already the youngest Cabinet minister in the State’s history, and has served in other portfolios like the environment, science and youth affairs.

But her status as a renter should be absolutely irrelevant to fixing this quagmire. Why wouldn’t it be as crucial – or even more so – to have a landlord or an economist or a developer even, in charge?

It says something about this Government that it is is putting its youngest Cabinet minister, with limited experience, in the cost-of-living portfolio most affecting voters – with very little assistance.

It’s not helping Meaghan Scanlon. And it’s not helping fix a crisis that is now denting the Palaszczuk Government’s re-election prospects; the latest poll, published in The Australian Financial Review, showing that the government would lose an election held today.

That Freshwater Strategy Poll shows voters clearly favouring the LNP when it comes to ‘housing and accommodation’ as well as ‘cost of and standards of living’ issues.

Meaghan Scanlon has a law degree, and a big future, but she does not have the experience to negotiate what is required to turn this crisis around – and that was highlighted this week when she struggled to answer media questions about how deep-seated the problems are that we now face.

Aimee McVeigh, who is the CEO at Queensland Council of Social Service, is another talented executive in this space.

I’m not sure if she rents, or owns streets of properties, and it’s just as irrelevant. But her experience includes being a director in the Australian Public Service, a legal practitioner director, a legal consultant, a director at Disability law Queensland, principal solicitor at the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women’s Legal and Advocacy Service, the rural regional remote project coordinator at the Queensland Public Interest Law Clearing House, and a lawyer in the private sector.

Oh, she also has a law degree, as well as a bachelor’s degree in communication and media studies and a master’s degree in international and public law.

And what does she say? To put a big dent in this crisis, QCOSS believes we need more than 2700 extra social homes annually, and more than 6,000 social and affordable new homes each year across Queensland, on top of what has already been promised.

And in addition to that, we need an extra 5,000 social and affordable homes committed to by the federal government if we are to keep pace with need and demand.

Kevin Mercer, the CEO of St Vincent de Paul Society in Queensland, has skin in this game too, with an increasing number of Queenslanders sleeping rough.

He believes the housing calamity can only be solved with a deal between all levels of government. And his experience points to him knowing what he is talking about.

He’s served as a chief executive at Mercy Health Australia, with residents living across 34 different residential aged care homes. He’s also been CEO of Holy Spirt Care services, a managing partner of KGK Consulting Ltd, a financial control, business development manager, marketing manager. He has a bachelor of Commerce, a masters of business administration and done courses through the CEO Institute of Australia and the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

His CV doesn’t mention whether he rents or owns property – and again, it is irrelevant; nothing more than a nugatory Government-inspired marketing line.

This crisis, according to McVeigh and Mercer and all those whose work revolves around housing, requires more focus, more money, a State Government commitment that runs beyond a ‘housing summit’ and a deal with its Labor partner, the Federal Government.

That’s what the experts believe – and what the State Government needs to deliver.

And the skill base to lead that charge should be bigger than one person. It needs skilful negotiation, an ability to unlock treasury funds, an empathy to understand the plight of renters and home-owners struggling to make ends meet, and an ability to change the glacial pace with which social and affordable housing is being delivered.

Voters are unlikely to care whether those able to deliver that rent their home or own a ‘townful’ of houses. They just want a place they can confidently call home.