Question Time

National Housing Accord

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (14:03): My question is to the Premier. Does the Premier have a target for how many new homes should be built in South Australia over the next five years and, if so, what is that target? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: The chief executive of the Department of Housing and Urban Development advised the Budget and Finance Committee on 19 August that 'We don't have specific targets' in relation to the federal government's 1.2 million National Housing Accord target.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:03): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for this question in particular because, as I am sure most people would be aware, housing policy generally has occupied an awful amount of the government's time as we have seen a housing supply shortage across the country present a range of challenges that really we certainly have been immune to in South Australia for some time.

It is true that, with the relatively strong performance of the South Australian economy, we are seeing demand for housing stock unlike what we have seen in the past. That, combined with some structural challenge within the housing market, has required very substantial government intervention.

In June, the state government announced its Housing Roadmap, which went into a lot of detail about the significance of those interventions. Not all of those interventions are supported by everybody. There are interventions that this government is making that are opposed by the opposition, which, of course, is their prerogative, and there are other interventions that we are making that enjoy the opposition's support, but we are pursuing those because we simply need to increase the supply of housing in the state of South Australia.

One of the most significant interventions this government is making is a record investment in new water infrastructure. We are making a long-term decision to put trunk water infrastructure at locations where we see there being a capacity for growth, particularly the northern suburbs of Adelaide—not exclusively, but in particular.

One of the big changes in policy is to go from spending $150 million on new water infrastructure to spending over $1.5 billion on new water infrastructure. Over the current regulatory period, we are going to see a tenfold increase from the Labor government on spending on new trunk water infrastructure to get more homes out of the ground versus what is one-tenth of that expenditure from those opposite.

If that is an area of contested policy, then presumably the Leader of the Opposition, or presumably the Liberal Party of South Australia, will go to the next election and say, 'Our commitment to the people of South Australia is to decrease new trunk water infrastructure expenditure by 90 per cent, or over 1,000 per cent.' If that is your policy, that's fine.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Members on my left will listen to the Premier in silence.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: Other big interventions this state government is making beyond big investments in water infrastructure is purchasing sites to get property or land to market quickly. Take, for example, the West End Brewery site. I think there was criticism from those opposite in that regard. Another big step that this government has taken is a reform, particularly driven by the Treasurer, to his credit, to abolish a tax—abolish a tax—not temporarily remove it, not reduce it, but we are abolishing a whole tax. We are abolishing a tax—

The Hon. V.A. Tarzia interjecting:

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: The Leader of the Opposition just interjected saying that abolishing a tax is socialist policy. My word, they are all over the place on that side of the house. You really don't know who you are talking to at any given moment. On this side of the house, as a result of strong budget management, delivering services, we have been able to abolish a tax for first-home buyers in the state of South Australia. Whether it be infrastructure, reducing tax—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Unley!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —whether it be planning reform, whether it be acquisition of sites to get them to market sooner, we are delivering the big changes to get more housing supply onto the market as quickly as possible.

The Hon. D.G. Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Now, now, member for Unley, quieten it down a little bit. Can you be a little bit more like the member for Finniss? We don't hear boo out of him—very, very well behaved. Maybe a little bit of that could rub off on you, I think. The leader.