The chair of the agency charged with making Labor’s housing agenda a reality has quit two weeks after this masthead revealed allegations of incompetence and bullying in the senior ranks of the organisation.

This masthead reported on October 9 that Housing Australia’s chair, Carol Austin, was the subject of a bullying probe last year. It found she did not breach a code of conduct but did find “concerning organisational challenges”, which led in part to hiring a new chief executive and new processes in the organisation.

But on Friday, a fortnight before she was due to be examined by senators in a parliamentary estimates hearing, Austin announced her resignation in a statement posted to Housing Australia’s website.

She said she had informed Housing Minister Clare O’Neil earlier in the week

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