Social Housing

S.E. ANDREWS (Gibson) (15:09): My question is to the Minister for Human Services. How is the Malinauskas Labor government working with key partners to deliver more social and affordable housing?

The Hon. N.F. COOK (Hurtle Vale—Minister for Human Services) (15:09): I thank the member for this question. We have been out together in the community talking to people who live in social housing and we know how valuable it is in our community.

This last year has been an historic turning point for social and affordable housing. For 29 of the last 30 years, public housing has gone down in numbers in South Australia, and the last time public housing actually went up under a Liberal Premier was in 1982. When we ran for election last year, we promised $177.5 million extra for public housing. We delivered that in our last budget and then increased it to $232.7 million in December last year. From 2022 to 2026, this will deliver 564 additional new public homes and do major upgrades on 350 more so that they can again be homes for people.

Federal Labor are putting their shoulder to the wheel. They promised extra support for homebuyers and they have delivered extra payments for renters. A key election promise from federal Labor was the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, or the HAFF as it is commonly known. Sadly, the legislation to support the HAFF was stalled. It had been delayed in the Senate, with both the Greens and the National Coalition—the Liberals—blocking its progress. But yesterday there was a breakthrough. The Greens have now indicated their support for the HAFF. This aims to support the delivery of 30,000 social and affordable homes over five years, with two-thirds of these homes, and an even higher proportion of the funding, being targeted at social housing.

While affordable housing is a critical part of our system—and we acknowledge that and support it for those people who can't afford market rents or purchase prices—social housing is a fundamental safety net for those who can't even pay what most of us consider to be a good deal. Ahead of the HAFF, the commonwealth announced the $2 billion social accelerator payment, with $135.8 million for public and community housing here in South Australia. This doubled down on our state commitment, providing huge opportunities to deliver better housing for people who need it most: older women, survivors of family violence, people with disability, people experiencing homelessness and Aboriginal South Australians, amongst others.

We are ready to deliver on both the state and federal investments. As soon as the commonwealth announced their social accelerator program, we reached out to our community housing providers, and they have put together projects that can deliver the best outcomes in the shortest possible time. Recent work with our partners identified almost 200 social housing projects in the community housing sector, with the vast majority ready to begin by the time the HAFF funding is available. This, with the Social Housing Accelerator and our state government investment, means we can keep working together on projects now, with the HAFF funding coming in the future, in around 18 to 24 months. Together, this will support a pipeline of work stretching on for another five years after that.

I am really pleased to advise that our public housing investment is already delivering outcomes. We promised those homes. We promised those new builds. In addition to the people who have already moved into those homes—with around a dozen completed and tenanted, and 70 due also to be completed by the end of October—we now have tenders out for another 100 that have been awarded and another 50 expected to be awarded by the end of the year. So we're getting on with it and we're doing the business of providing social housing for people in South Australia, as well as affordable housing.