Address in Reply

ADDRESS IN REPLY

Adjourned debate on motion for adoption.

(Continued from 16 February 2012.)

Ms SANDERSON (Adelaide) (11:06): In renewal developments planned for the CBD, highlighted by His Excellency the Governor, there is no intention by the Labor government to address the chronic shortage of public housing and ever-increasing waiting list. For example, I recently attended a forum with anxious residents who will be relocated as part of the Labor government's plan to demolish sections of Housing SA properties—Playford, Manitoba and the Box Factory in the CBD—to create high-rise apartments, most of which will privately sold.

The first 12 units to be demolished in Playford will then be replaced with a five to seven storey high-rise, but only up to 14 of the new units will be set aside for Housing SA clients. We are hardly addressing the public housing shortage when in such a large redevelopment such a small proportion is retained as public housing stock, while the rest of the asset is sold off. This is privatisation by stealth.

Manitoba, another Housing SA development within the city, contains 47 dwellings. It is proposed that these will be converted into 200 new dwellings. However, I understand that no commitment has yet been made for at least 47 of the new units to be retained as public housing stock, so another opportunity to provide affordable housing is wasted, but this government is neither listening nor serious about providing real and meaningful housing assistance to South Australians.

Let us look at the pensioner rebate available to pensioners to assist with their council rates. I recently responded to a letter from the Mayor of Prospect council, David O'Loughlin, seeking an increase in rebate relief available to pensioners for council rates. Ironically, mayor O'Loughlin has another role within Housing SA, particularly in the redevelopment of Housing SA properties in the CBD that I referred to earlier. I had to remind mayor O'Loughlin that the rebate rate is set by the ministers for families and communities and that the amount of the rebate available to pensioners has not increased during the tenure of this Labor government after 10 long years.

Pensioners have told me that they can no longer afford to live in the house they came to as a bride, in which they raised their children and in which many have become a widow. Some were even born in the house in which they still live. They can no longer afford to live within the community they know. I know pensioners who do not use heating or cooling for fear of what the electricity bill will be, and now we are forewarned that our electricity bills are set to rise by up to 40 per cent.

I urge the government to get real on these social issues. Come for a drive in my electorate—you will see all along Prospect Road several empty shops, a legacy of the state tax regime which makes it just too difficult for businesses to survive, let alone prosper. Melbourne Street traders have been struggling for years, with some premises averaging a new business occupant every year. You will see patchwork roads that are part of the $200 million backlog in maintenance. You will meet school leavers who are part of our youth unemployment that is the highest in the nation. You will met NGO workers who are opening up food cupboards to people who have never before needed charity, going through each shelf offering cans, rice, flour—basic food staples. You will see the despair and shame many people feel in needing such help. You will meet older people—pensioners—many of whom have worked and paid taxes their whole adult life and who are losing hope that life can get better for them, that the struggle will end. I believe that the loss of hope is the greatest sadness and shame of all.

I received a letter just last week that I would like to read into Hansard, a letter typical of the responses I am receiving throughout my electorate. It states:

My wife and I have decided to move to a place that has its leaders plan and implement a positive future for their people and their region as a whole. Our new home will be in Dubai. It may be of some interest to you and a testimony to the extremely poor way the Labor government is running South Australia and Australia at this present time. I have been running a successful architectural practice for 26 of the past 28 years, surviving by referrals only! During the past two years the number of projects have reduced to 70 per cent over previous years. I have been through two recessions since 1983 and have never seen it so bad! Many of my peers, builders and suppliers are experiencing similar experiences. My clients of recent times have sought initial architectural advice only to have their projects put on 'hold' due to the uncertainty of the economic situation and the high cost of starting their projects.

Stifling taxes and levies imposed on developers (many small-time 'mum and dad' developers planning their retirement income in lieu of pensions) and the extraordinary high costs of running a business—it costs as much as 34 per cent more in taxes to start up a business in South Australia than in Queensland! has forced the very people that create jobs to pack up and move interstate or overseas (over 88,000 people left Australia for good in 2011!). I have attached a report on this for your information.

We will be located overseas for several years and won't be back to work in Australia unless the high tax and levy situations are brought back to an investor-friendly level.

Best wishes to you in future and we hope your party wins the next elections and implements a vision that supports the above-mentioned developers and people like us.

My only hope is for a Liberal government in just over two years so we can start setting things right and turn South Australia into the thriving, vibrant state it was before the Labor government's State Bank disaster and the last 10 hard years of Labor.