Housing Crisis

Mr BROWN (Florey) (15:11): My question is to the Treasurer. Can the Treasurer update the house on the Malinauskas government's response to the current housing crisis? Is he aware of any alternative views?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer, Minister for Defence and Space Industries) (15:12): Before I answer, I will just get back to the member for Colton on his question, because he asked me about the number of businesses closing. As I indicated to him, there is an easily accessible dataset on the ABS website. Unfortunately, it's only released annually, so we've only got the data for the 2022-23 financial year, the first full financial year of this government. I can report to the house that the number of South Australian businesses grew by 1,740 over the course of our first year. There is also another subset of the data—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —now that the deputy leader has once again interjected—and it measures the number of businesses operating in South Australia at the end of the March quarter of 2022. That was 153,139 against the number of businesses operating in South Australia at the end of the March quarter of 2024, the most recent quarter, which was 162,731, a net increase of 9,592 businesses. So I am grateful to the member for his question.

Getting back to housing, as I alluded to yesterday, the Premier and I went down to Seaton to announce a broadscale redevelopment of housing. So, 388 public housing dwellings can be redeveloped and returned on a one-for-one basis and 1,300 new homes will be delivered. Of course, the alternative is what the previous government did. The previous government did not commit to a broadacre development; the previous government had a demonstrator project where they flogged off 35 Housing Trust dwellings and were only going to replace 16—so more than a 50 per cent reduction in Housing Trust properties.

Of course, as the Premier has already articulated, that is par for the course when it comes to liquidator Lensink. The former housing minister, liquidator Lensink, was flogging off public houses; she flogged off a thousand in the last term of government. Not only that but she baked into the South Australian Housing Authority's forward estimates that would have gone from 2022 to 2026 a further 580, a reduction of 1,580 in public housing. That is what the Liberals think about public housing.

We have stopped the Liberal sell off, and not just that: we are building more houses. At Seaton we are not just returning one for one, but in Noarlunga we are adding more houses, and of our election commitment, the more than 400 that we committed to in new, additional houses, the advice I have been given is that already more than 100 are under construction—new homes for South Australians who need them the most.

When it comes to stamp duty, I realise there are some people in this place who are a little more extensively experienced in the real estate market than others. If this were some sort of coffee card arrangement, he would nearly be up to his second free property, the Leader of the Opposition. I realise he is experienced in this, but we want new homes, and by tailoring stamp duty relief to new homes more will be built, because we know that the alternative of allocating stamp duty relief to existing homes just drives up the price. It is only good for vendors, it is not good for purchasers.