POVERTY

Mrs GERAGHTY (Torrens) (14:47): My question is to the Minister for Families and Communities. What has the state government done to assist people who are caught in the poverty cycle?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Minister for Families and Communities, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister for Housing, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Disability, Minister Assisting the Premier in Cabinet Business and Public Sector Management) (14:47): This is Anti-Poverty Week this week which aims to strengthen public understanding of the causes and consequences of poverty and hardship around the world and within Australia. Poverty, of course, is a relative concept—Bangladesh aside. We have people within this country who cannot participate in the activities that many of us take for granted. The Australian Council of Social Service estimates that two million people in Australia live in poverty (one in 10 Australians). So, it is critical that we continue to highlight that many people in South Australia—families, in particular—are living in poverty with all of the stresses on families that poverty brings. I think we are seeing real evidence of that within our child protection system alone, with a massive growth in the number of families that cannot cope and an extraordinary number of children coming into care.

It is important that we also highlight these issues because it seems that some of our leaders in this country are out of touch with the effect that this is having on families. In fact, we have none other than our Prime Minister saying that his view is that working families have never been better off, and it is no surprise that, whenever people are reminded of that remark by the Prime Minister, it causes great anger because there are many South Australians (indeed, many Australians) who are finding it more difficult than ever and who are having difficulty coping.

One of the key determinants of poverty is housing insecurity and, without stable and affordable housing, escaping the poverty cycle is extraordinarily difficult. Indeed, the HIA/Commonwealth Bank affordability report for September has found that housing affordability for Australian families has hit a new all-time low, showing the impact of John Howard's broken promises on interest rates over the last few years. Nationally, first-time home owners are spending 31.7 per cent of their total income on mortgage repayments—up from 17.5 per cent in September 1996, 11 years ago. For first-time home owners we have this jump from 17.5 per cent of income to 31.7 per cent of income in 11 years of the Howard government. As most members would appreciate, it is extraordinarily difficult to deal with the stresses and strains of modern living if you do not have secure and stable housing from which to work.

In South Australia we have been involved in a range of measures to increase the supply of affordable housing. We are begging the commonwealth government to partner us in that exercise, and we are hopeful of being able to work with an elected Rudd government to progress some of these initiatives. But we are not waiting for that; we have already decided to act. Our Affordable Housing Innovations Program has made commitments to 14 capital projects, which involve partner organisations committing to constructing 205 houses in metropolitan and regional areas. Using this partnership approach, a house can be built and an affordable rental outcome achieved for less than 50 per cent of the cost of a traditional public housing investment.

We have also seen with our new Statutes Amendment (Affordable Housing) Bill in South Australia the capacity for a 15 per cent affordable housing target. Many metropolitan and regional councils are now working with us to make that work. We are improving access to affordable housing through innovations such as our property locater website, which has had 6,402 hits since its launch in August, with almost 50 properties taken up under that scheme. Our properties in the supported tenancies scheme have increased from 977 to 1,082, and the Disability Housing Program has gone from 196 to 257 in the last year.

The private rental liaison program also provides support for disadvantaged households to access private rental. Finally, an impressive achievement against the national trends: homelessness (rough sleeping) actually fell in South Australia between 2001 and 2006 when in every other jurisdiction it rose, the national average being 19 per cent. South Australia has a long and proud history of housing innovation. What we need is a willing commonwealth partner to take us further.