Port Hughes Housing Development

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (14:37): My question is to the Minister for Housing Infrastructure. Why won't SA Water assist in ensuring that a housing development at Port Hughes goes ahead? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr ELLIS: Developers Metacap are attempting to develop a block at Port Hughes to provide significant housing in our region but are not getting sufficient support from SA Water. They have offered generous interim solutions to allow the project to get started while SA Water come up with a more long-term plan, but have not as yet reached an agreement despite significant support from the local council.

The Hon. N.D. CHAMPION (Taylor—Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Minister for Housing Infrastructure, Minister for Planning) (14:37): I thank the member for Narungga for his advocacy for his community. We do have issues with housing out in the regions. We all understand that. That is why the government has invested a significant amount of money through the Office for Regional Housing and also we have SA Water negotiating with a number of developers right across from Mount Gambier. I have had representations for the rest of the South-East right the way through to the Eyre Peninsula and we understand that this infrastructure is very expensive. Often we are requiring developers to make significant contributions for that, to bring blocks online, and sometimes that affects feasibilities. For those general reasons, these negotiations are always hard fought.

As I understand it, SA Water met most recently on 1  October. They also continue to meet with the Copper Coast Council. The Mayor of the Copper Coast Council wrote to me in August and I was waiting for the negotiations between SA Water and the council and the developer to conclude before I replied. Obviously, we will do what we can and what is reasonable to facilitate housing development across the state. This government has invested an enormous amount of money in water infrastructure in the southern suburbs in places like Hackham and in the northern suburbs obviously on our broad growth front.

I don't know what was going on in the previous government, under the previous water minister. I don't know what was preoccupying his time. I don't quite know what was going on. Maybe the focus was not 100 per cent on the state's interests given the enormous infrastructure backlog from one end of the state to the other. This government is investing in water infrastructure, and everybody knows it. The first pipe went in the ground 100 days after the road map was announced. One hundred days after, we put in the first pipe: 18 metres a day, 3,000 metres of pipe, a huge infrastructure contribution. The reason for that is we want to unlock housing in the state and we want SA Water to be part of that.

Mr ELLIS: Supplementary, sir.

The SPEAKER: Let's see if it is a supplementary, member for Narungga.