Question Time

HomeBuilder Program

Mr COWDREY (Colton) (14:29): My question is to the Treasurer. Did the Treasurer recently write to HomeBuilder applicants and, if so, has he received any feedback from recipients? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr COWDREY: Recipients of the Treasurer's letter include the following applicants who have given permission for their comments to be passed on. Lisa MacInven said, 'It's ball [expletive]; it's infuriating.' Lee-Ann said, 'Kick in the guts for sure.' Caity Richardson said, 'They've just sent out the backlog letters as I got exactly the same response,' and, 'Tough [expletive] at the end of the day for all of us, it seems.' Alycia said:

I was horrified, shocked and distraught by the letter from the Treasurer's office. I disclosed sensitive information about my dire personal situation and did not receive any kind of compassion, consideration or support. It is incredibly distressing…I am appalled...

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer) (14:30): Yes, I did receive responses to the correspondence, as the member has just read out. I think the tone and the nature of the responses demonstrates why those applicants have my sympathy, my very genuine sympathy. But I reiterate, it is not a—

Mr Cowdrey: Do what the Queensland Treasurer did.

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Colton is warned.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: As I have reiterated a number of times to the member for Colton, it is not within my discretion to make these payments under the scheme. This is a scheme which has been closed for nearly two years. When the media itself made inquiries of the federal government they themselves have confirmed the status of that scheme. The reason that it is not being reopened or I am not seeking to reopen the scheme for one group of people who find themselves in this very regrettable situation is because it would be fundamentally inequitable for all of those other people who found themselves in similar situations and missed out on the scheme as well.

I understand their frustrations. I share them. But it is not within my purview or capacity to alleviate their frustrations by giving them these funds. The reason we have not made their representations to the federal government is, as I said before, that it would be inequitable for all of those other people who have missed out according to exactly—

Mr Cowdrey: The Queensland Treasurer didn't think so. He had a heart.

The SPEAKER: The member for Colton is warned for a final time.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Because it would be inequitable for all those other people who have missed out on exactly the same terms and conditions of the scheme that was approved and signed up to by the previous coalition government and the previous Liberal state government and, as I said, it has been closed for more than two years.

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: The Deputy Leader says circumstances have moved on and he may be aware, of course, that pressures within the building industry have not suddenly changed since 19 March last year. They have been existent for some time, and they have also led to many other—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is warned for a final time.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: As I have indicated, there are many other South Australians who applied for the HomeBuilder scheme at both value levels—either $25,000 or $15,000—who have missed out according to those same pressures within the industry. So, while those people have missed out, while those people were rejected under similar circumstances by the previous Treasurer of the previous government, what we now have is the member for Colton advocating that the scheme should be reopened and an exception made for this group of South Australians. As I said, they have my full sympathy. I share their frustrations, including those that they have expressed in their letters. But that is the reason that we have taken the approach that we have.