Parliamentary Committees

Public Works Committee: Morphettville Neighbourhood Renewal Project

Ms DIGANCE (Elder) (11:42): I move:

That the 545^th report of the committee, entitled Morphettville Neighbourhood Renewal Project, be noted.

The Morphettville Neighbourhood Renewal Project—

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Members will leave the chamber and have their conversations outside. We are listening to the member for Elder. Thank you.

Ms DIGANCE: The Morphettville Neighbourhood Renewal Project is part of the Renewing Our Streets and Suburbs initiative. This initiative aims to renew 4,500 Housing Trust properties located within 10 kilometres of the Adelaide CBD by 2020. These are generally properties built before 1968. This renewal project includes both renovating properties and complete demolition and rebuild.

The intent is to improve the quality of public housing, provide properties that better suit South Australian Housing Trust clients, and improve the aesthetics and amenities of surrounding areas. The focus is on providing improved housing stock and new land for sale in existing suburbs, with increased housing density close to transport and other established services and facilities.

Morphettville is in a prime location to facilitate these aims. It is eight kilometres from the city, within two kilometres of Marion shopping centre and Glenelg, and the tram runs along the northern edge of the suburb and abuts the open space and wetland of the Morphettville Racecourse. The project incorporates at least 280 houses, public and private, over an 11 hectare area. The works will include the demolition of 75 properties, renovation of 24 Housing Trust houses to sell, upgrading a further 22 Housing Trust dwellings to be kept, and the creation of 151 new housing allotments that include 128 new houses or land for sale, 30 of which will be new affordable houses and 23 new Housing Trust properties.

The current density of the Housing Trust stock is 76 per cent. This project will reduce that to 24 per cent, in line with the South Australian Housing Trust aim of greater integration of Housing Trust stock with private properties.

As with any of these projects, some Housing Trust tenants will need to relocate. There is a one-on-one process whereby Housing Trust relocation officers will be working with these tenants to identify appropriate alternative accommodation. This process is ongoing. Consultation is continuing with key stakeholders, including the local community and local council; and the committee focused very strongly on this consultation process to ensure that it was in place.

The project will occur over three stages, with stage 1 to commence later this year and completion due by the end of 2020. Funding for the project will be sourced from the South Australian Housing Trust budget. It will be a self-funding project with the department required to expend $16.329 million (GST inclusive) to facilitate the project, with an estimated revenue of $31.122 million (GST exclusive) expected. The net surplus of over $14 million will be used by the department for other housing renewal projects.

I would like to thank my fellow committee members for their contribution and deliberation on this project, and I would also like to thank committee staff for their ongoing support and work. This is an exciting project for the suburb of Morphettville. It provides a great opportunity to revive the area and for private home owners to purchase land in a suburb ideally located between the city and coast, and well-serviced by public transport. Given this, and pursuant to section 12C of the Parliamentary Committees Act 1991, the Public Works Committee reports to parliament that it recommends the proposed public works.

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (11:46): I, too, rise to speak on the 545^th report of the Public Works Committee entitled Morphettville Neighbourhood Renewal Project. During the hearing of this project it was revealed that the Morphettville Neighbourhood Renewal Project is part of the state government's Renewing Our Streets and Suburbs initiative and is being managed and driven by Renewal SA on behalf of the South Australian Housing Trust.

We are told that the project will see the redevelopment of the Morphettville area, represented by a very good member down there. Dr Duncan McFetridge is doing a fine job in keeping peace, keeping harmony, and making sure he listens to every concern that his constituents raise.

The redevelopment will occur over three stages, with construction from late 2016 until late 2020. It will include the establishment of at least 151 new housing allotments; 128 new houses on new allotments for sale, including 30 new affordable houses or land for sale; the renovation and sale of the 24 Housing Trust properties; and 45 new and renovated properties retained by the South Australian Housing Trust.

Along the way, we noted that the 87 Housing Trust tenants will need to be relocated to allow for demolition of the 75 properties. I had some concerns over the consultation for these people to be told that they are moving out. Also, there was a little bit of concern over a couple of the constituents down there who are handicapped, and they would have to be relocated.

We talked about reducing the overall time of public housing waiting lists. As I said during the hearing, if we are looking at reducing waiting lists with the same number of Housing Trust homes, I find it very difficult to understand how they are going to reduce the waiting lists with no more Housing Trust homes. Overall, it is a great project. It is a project that is needed for some renewal down at Morphettville, and I look forward to seeing the outcome.

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (11:49): As indicated by the member for Chaffey, yes, we do support the project on this side of the house, and I acknowledge the comments that have been made on both sides. However, it is worth remembering in this chamber that this government has sold off thousands and thousands of Housing Trust homes since it has been in government, since 2002, and this has been a long time coming in trying to get something else in its place. In supporting the project, we do not want to lose sight of what they have flogged off in order to survive.

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (11:50): I rise to speak on the report into the redevelopment of the Morphettville Housing Trust area. This is a great move. I have been over there a number of times to talk to constituents. I think the vintage of the homes over there is about the same as the house that my family and I lived in on Hogarth Road, Elizabeth South, so that is the early fifties. They do need to be refurbished and renewed, and I think this is a great project.

What I am very disappointed about is the hotchpotch sale by Renewal SA (formerly Housing SA) who are managing the sales of individual Housing Trust homes. This renewal project is going to be, in some ways, hamstrung by the fact these old homes still there are being sold off to private owners now. Unfortunately, some of those—and I am not saying those particularly at Morphettville—we see are cases where the new owners of these homes are renting them out and do not take much care of the property and certainly have no real concern about their tenants. We then see a ripple effect from potential bad behaviour—sometimes really bad behaviour—from these old homes, with who knows what is in them, to what we are redeveloping.

We have to make sure that, if we are going to give people a chance to come into a new home, whether it is owned by the private sector or the public sector, that home is going to be something they will want to be in all the time and be proud of and that the community is going to be a community they want to be involved in. If we are doing this sort of project, I appeal to the Housing Trust, and through Renewal SA, to look at what they are doing when they are doing this to make sure that they are not leaving little pockets of the very old-style Housing Trust homes there because they are deplorable.

I had one particular constituent who was in a wheelchair and her son was in a wheelchair and the changes that had been made to this house would have cost an absolute fortune. It would have been cheaper to put them into a newer home. The new homes I have been shown by Renewal SA when they came to brief me—and I thank them for that briefing—are really very stylish 2016-style homes. This is a great development. I look forward to seeing the old stock refurbished and renewed in South Australia and to make sure that the $10 billion worth of Housing Trust stock that this government owns is not just used as a cash cow to be sold off when the Treasury needs a bit of extra money. Let's make sure we protect the people in these homes.

When mum and dad moved to 85 Hogarth Road, it was a great opportunity for them to get into a house with three boys (my two brothers and I) at the time. They were both working. Mum was a schoolteacher and dad was a fireman. It was a great opportunity to have a relatively cheap home as a start and that happened right throughout Elizabeth. What we see now though is that a lot of the tenants in Housing Trust homes are people who have financial challenges, are out of the mental health system or the prison system, and have a lot of personal issues. They need wraparound services, and we see that this is happening in some areas. We saw the transfer of homes to some of the NGOs (Anglicare and the like) recently.

In 2008, I understand the government signed up to a COAG agreement to transfer 35 per cent of Housing Trust homes. It was not to sell them, but to transfer the management and lease these homes to the NGOs so that they could not only manage the homes, but also provide those wraparound services that many of these vulnerable people in these homes now require in this day and age.

This is a good development. Let's hope that the people who get the opportunity to move into these new homes value them because it is a great area over there. It is close to downtown Glenelg and all the wonderful beaches along there, the Morphettville racetrack, the open space, the wetlands, and Sturt Creek—it is a great area. I look forward to seeing the redevelopment go ahead.

The need to make sure we do this wherever we can across South Australia, not only in Adelaide but also in the regional towns where there is very old Housing Trust stock, is something that I think we need to pay attention to. Refurbishing and redeveloping like this is a great thing.

Ms DIGANCE (Elder) (11:54): I would like to thank my fellow members, the member for Chaffey, the member for Finniss, and the local member for the area, the member for Morphett, for their contributions, and I note the bipartisan support that this project brings. I also appreciate the passionate comments by the member for Morphett, and I do recognise, as he said, that it is 'a good development'. So with that I recommend the report to the house.

Motion carried.