RENTAL ACCOMMODATION, REGIONAL SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Mr BIGNELL (Mawson) (14:52): My question is to the Minister for Housing. How is the government helping people in regional South Australia get into and stay in rental accommodation?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

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) (14:53): I thank the honourable member for his question and his particular interest in questions of housing and homelessness, and I was very pleased to be able to work with him on the closure of a caravan park very early in the life of his term in this place.

The key focus of the state government has been the homelessness initiative through Monsignor David Cappo's Social Inclusion Board. While the statistics show that there is a lot of work to be done in South Australia, we are making progress—and progress against the national trends. In fact, South Australia was the only state to demonstrate a fall in primary homelessness, when around the nation there was, in fact, an average of a 19 per cent increase—and, indeed, in those states that we are properly compared with, about a 39 per cent increase—in primary homelessness. So, we are cautiously optimistic about the fact that our approaches are having some impact.

One of the Social Inclusion Board's initiatives in this area was the private rental liaison project, which was aimed at reducing homelessness by linking vulnerable people with rental accommodation and making sure that they could make a success of it. As we know, there is a squeeze around the country in terms of affordable rental accommodation, with vacancy rates at record lows, and it is vital that our housing effort concentrates not only on social housing but also that other important area of housing. Almost double the number of people in South Australia are in private rental as opposed to social housing.

The private rental liaison officers liaise with landlords and property managers and assist tenants to understand their rights and responsibilities. They also receive ongoing visits at two, four, six and 12 weeks to assist them to make sure that handling the tenancy is going well. They also respond to difficulties that the tenancy might be experiencing, and they work with tenants to address issues.

Since it began in May 2004, this private rental liaison project has helped 1,400 people into housing and, more importantly, it has stopped people from falling into homelessness—so much so that a side benefit of this scheme is that we have had private sector landlords asking to be signed up to it, providing us with lists of their properties so that they can actually have this association, because they can see the benefit in having a successful tenancy.

I am pleased to announce that, while we have mainstreamed this service beyond the social inclusion initiative in the metropolitan area, we are now seeking to take it out to some of the regional areas, including Mount Gambier and Murray Bridge. This means that the scheme now supports people in the South-East, Murray Bridge, as well as metropolitan Adelaide, the Riverland, Port Augusta and Port Pirie.

The provision of private rental liaison officers is an example of this government's recognition that housing policy is more than just about the provision of bricks and mortar: it is about providing people with the support to make a success of their tenancies.