Housing Construction

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (14:22): My question is to the Premier. How many homes have been built at Concordia, Golden Grove, Dry Creek, Noarlunga Downs, Hackham, Aldinga and Sellicks Beach since the government announced the land releases?

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:22): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for this question; it very much follows on from the theme established by the Treasurer. Housing is very much a priority of the government, which is why we have been working assiduously, pretty much since the handing down of our first state budget in June 2022 onwards.

In order to address the housing supply challenge there are a number of levers available to the state government, and we are seeking to pull all of them. One of them is land release. As the Treasurer rightly pointed out, this government has been responsible for the largest land release that we have seen in the history of this state, and some of those parcels of land the Leader of the Opposition has just identified in his question. Land release is the first step. From there, there are a range of other steps that need to be undertaken prior to construction of homes commencing. The rezoning process is a good example of that, then there is land division, and also a central element to this challenge is around water infrastructure.

Regarding water infrastructure, that is something that the government has already turned its mind to, and continues to turn its mind to, because that is something that we have seen a neglect of in the past. I think it's fair to say that had the land release, followed by the rezoning, followed by the water work, been done with a long-term horizon in the past then, arguably, we would not be in the position that we are in today. That is not to say that any of these things, on their own, automatically address the housing crisis. There are other elements as well, other elements that other agencies, other levels of government, are responsible for.

The other critical element, of course, is workforce. We have already seen this government make a number of investments, institute a number of new policies, to try to drive greater participation in the housing construction workforce, whether it be training within our TAFEs or with non-government providers. On top of that, there are other programs we have been working on closely in collaboration with industry such as the Master Builders Association, with the introduction of programs like Born to Build, for instance.

We are moving on the quickest possible timeline regarding this. On 25 June this year—and I am not sure if this has been said in this chamber since the announcement—the state government will be announcing its Housing Roadmap, a forum that is being held at the Adelaide Convention Centre. It is being hosted by the MBA, the UDIA, the HIA, the Civil Contractors Federation and the Property Council, and I would like to thank all those organisations for their collaboration with government.

At the release of the Housing Roadmap there will be a suite of detail put into the public domain in terms of numbers and timelines in the delivery of homes in a way that the Leader of the Opposition's question refers to—in a coordinated and structured policy way that takes into account all the variables that government should consider in such a policy effort, including critical delivery of infrastructure.