Grievance Debate

PORT AUGUSTA HOUSING

The Hon. G.M. GUNN (Stuart) (15:32): I have two matters that I wish to raise today. First, I received a copy of a letter which has been sent to the Minister for Housing from constituents of mine in Port Augusta which states:

I refer to the Transcontinental Newspaper of 14/10/09 where you announced new public housing for Port Augusta, in particular your references of 'houses will be spread across the city to avoid creating high-density housing trust enclaves' and 'we're moving away from having mass development allotments of social housing—we want to have a mixture. Our aim is to mix about 15 to 20 per cent in any one area.'

I ask Ms Rankine have you bothered to ask private residences in Port Augusta of where you intend to place these new houses, what are your thoughts? Perhaps also ask the existing private residences of what their experiences are with SAHT tenants.

It is brought to your attention that the current situation of mixing the SAHT housing (including Aboriginal SAHT) amongst private residences in Port Augusta does not work! The last 10 years, and more so the last 2 years, there has been an increase in antisocial behaviour because of the SAHT tenants, in particular the Aboriginal SAHT tenants.

The area I am talking about in particular is the Carlton area of Port Augusta. The privately owned residents in this are fed up with the actions of the SAHT residents but are too intimidated by these people to complain because of the abuse, threats, violent behaviour and property damage that are/and can be caused by these people.

These law-abiding citizens, in my view, not only have the expectation but have the right to live in their residence without this disgraceful, unnecessary behaviour of these people who do not appreciate that the taxpayers of South Australia and Australia have given them a reasonable home at reasonable cost, and that the taxpayers who are living alongside them are paying the taxes so these people can be given this opportunity to have reasonable housing but they continue to misuse, abuse, threaten and destroy the social environment of the area.

I believe that the people who are put in these homes should respect other people's privacy and their property, and if they are not prepared to do so, urgent action needs to be taken to remove them and to put all these type of people together in the one area. What they do to one another, I do not care and nor do my constituents, but my constituents, particularly elderly people, should not be intimidated, threatened or in any way inconvenienced by this disgraceful antisocial behaviour. They are absolutely sick and tired of it.

I have another issue; that is, the road situation in the north-east pastoral area of South Australia. I have received the following letter from a constituent. This is a copy of a letter sent to the Premier. The letter states:

There really should be no need to write this letter to draw your attention to the dismal and unsafe state of the unsealed roads in the North-East Pastoral region and adjacent areas, especially after your recent visit to the Geothermal plant at Paralana where you would have experienced these for yourself.

Roads have deteriorated to an unacceptable and unsafe condition placing business growth, tourism and other ventures of more remote areas at risk. It should be obvious to the Government…We're all aware there's limited funding for roads…however developments occurring in areas other than the immediate vicinity of Adelaide, appropriate infrastructure is essential. We realise that the prolonged drought (going into the 12^th summer) also has its impact. The continued tourism and increased mining activity has caused the roads to rapidly worsen which restricts development and conducting of businesses in remote areas.

The letter makes the following points:

A local mining company had to repair public roads at their own expense…truck drivers who are providing a service to us and neighbouring properties/businesses are very reluctant to travel here because of the tyre and mechanical damage from these roads experienced in their previous trips.

Teachers took four and a half hours to travel 200km to visit schools on a remote property. They too were concerned that they would make the trip safely.

In the past we have been asked by the police to check reports of roll-overs due to road conditions—fortunately, so far no-one has been seriously hurt…Even worse, the mailman has no option but to travel the worst sections [of this road] twice a week, every week.

There is a need to take some action. I attended the geothermal plant opening at Paralana—

Time expired.