HOUSING AFFORDABILITY

Ms THOMPSON (Reynell) (15:02): My question is to the Minister for Housing. How is the government working with the community sector to increase affordable housing options in Adelaide?

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) (15:03): I thank the honourable member for her question. I was delighted recently to accompany the honourable member, along with my parliamentary colleagues the honourable member for Mawson and also the new federal member for the seat of Kingston, Amanda Rishworth, to the opening of an exciting new partnership that is delivering new housing options for disadvantaged families.

On Friday I launched the new Calvary Housing Association, which is a joint project between this government and Lutheran Community Care. Calvary Housing Association is starting out with eight homes, north and south of the city, and these homes will be rented to low and moderate income families. Six existing houses have been upgraded and are tenanted, and two are being newly built in Aldinga. I am delighted that the families have now been able to settle into their new homes and have done so with the knowledge that they will have an affordable rent, long-term security and a supportive landlord who is committed to helping them move forward with their lives.

This project is another step in the state government's commitment to provide affordable housing through partnerships with the private and non-government sectors. More than 370 houses have been funded by the Affordable Housing Innovation Fund since the government launched its housing plan in March 2005. In the present housing affordability crisis, we know that it is getting increasingly difficult for low to moderate income families to access appropriate affordable housing, and I am delighted that this government has been able to assist a new organisation to take shape and deliver such a vital community service.

What we have decided to do in this state is tackle the affordable housing question, not just preside over the long, painful and slow death of the Housing Trust, and that is really what the previous opposition was doing. The opposition ripped out 10,000 homes over the period of its term in government. What passed for housing policy in this state was the slow haemorrhaging to death of the Housing Trust—just slowly ebbing away. That is all there was. All housing policy was consumed by that, and the way in which houses were sold to maintain the viability of the trust was completely mad. They would sell off homes for something like $40,000, $50,000 or $60,000—homes that we are now having to buy back to assemble parcels of land to actually regenerate some of these suburbs.

When you hear about some of the issues involving disruptive tenancies, some of the worst issues in places like the Peachey Belt actually occur because of the slum landlords who purchased these cheap homes that were sold off at bargain basement prices by those officers, and we are now seeking to overcome those issues as we try to rebuild these communities.

The member for Norwood yesterday gave a report to this place from the Public Works Committee about an important new project, the billion dollar Playford North Redevelopment Project, which is the way forward for housing policy and the Housing Trust (now known as Housing SA in this state), with the regeneration of the old properties, new ways of doing things, partnerships with both the private sector and the community sector and critically now, for the first time, a willing commonwealth partner. There will be a range of exciting new projects that we will be announcing in the coming months.