Cape Jaffa Housing Development

Mr McBRIDE (MacKillop) (15:02): My question is to the Premier. Could the Premier inform the house regarding the lunch that was held on 25 June—the Housing Roadmap lunch—at the Convention Centre, and the fact that he mentioned the Cape Jaffa development? With your leave, Mr Speaker, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr McBRIDE: At the lunch, the Premier made what I would have to call a really positive speech around the underinvestment, underdevelopment and perhaps even the desertion—leaving these responsibilities to local government—and it couldn't be a clearer highlight of mismanagement in the past in a development like Cape Jaffa, where it is now silting up, they are losing their potable water and it is a half-finished development that has now been left for local government and the state or federal government to clean up.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (15:02): It's an important question. Yes, I was rather candid in my remarks at the Housing Roadmap forum about the circumstances we see here at Cape Jaffa, but the Cape Jaffa circumstance of course isn't unprecedented either.

When it comes to housing supply, we know that water infrastructure is absolutely critical. I said this at the Housing Roadmap event as well. I think it is fair to say that there are a number of governments who have culpability for not seriously thinking through what the future looks like when it comes to investment in water infrastructure and how critical it is in terms of housing supply.

When people turn on their taps at home they expect water to come out, and they see the services provided by SA Water as a service. In actual fact, we've got to look at SA Water not as a service delivery agency but, rather, as an economic agency that helps unlock growth. That is a fundamental change and a shift that is being led by this government.

The circumstances at Cape Jaffa were allowing a developer to have an approach around water supply exclusively with an eye on their margin and their profit, rather than actually thinking about the people who would live there and who would pay for the cost of having not just a service but a maintained service that will withstand growth into the future.

When those private schemes are allowed to run unfettered or unchecked, then invariably what can occur is the developer leaves having pocketed their return—which is their prerogative, we want developers to make money—but then having a failed scheme. Where there is a failed scheme, of course, the insurer of last resort for the people who live there ends up being either a local government or the state government. That, of course, is wholly unsatisfactory—wholly unsatisfactory.

That, of course, invites a policy response from government to make sure that we don't allow those mistakes to happen again in the future; therefore, there needs to be a positive obligation imposed by the state under an appropriate regulatory framework to ensure that when developers are allowed to install the water infrastructure that it meets standards, is sustainable and is funded.

Where they are not able to meet that test, then, of course, they shouldn't be allowed to develop the property unchecked, or the state makes sure the developer purchases a piece of land with a degree of consciousness about whether or not water is going to be connected at any time soon, which is why we need the road map, which is why we need a policy that actually says, 'Here's where the water is getting connected and when.'

If you buy a piece of land at a cheap price, you can't just expect the government to be there the next day delivering that infrastructure regardless of the cost to the taxpayer or the water consumer. We need to have a planned approach so everyone knows what to pay for that piece of land and with a knowledge of when water is coming, if it's coming at all. That's why we have the road map and why the minister has been meeting with industry.

There is an industry working group, the Property Council, HIA, UDIA, CCF, sitting down, working through with industry saying, 'Here's where we are investing the water supply to come to and here's where it's going when it's going to come.' Of course, every developer wants water at their land yesterday, but we are doing it in a thoughtful and methodical way to make sure that we are unlocking as much growth when we can and learning the lessons past of what happened at Cape Jaffa.