House of Assembly Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1) 55 1 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Question Time Malinauskas Labor Government Malinauskas Labor Government Ms O'HANLON House of Assembly Dunstan Malinauskas Labor Government Ms O'HANLON (Dunstan) (14:28): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier update the house on action taken by the Malinauskas government during 2024? The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS House of Assembly Croydon Premier Malinauskas Labor Government The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:28): I thank the member for Dunstan for her question. The member for Dunstan, being a new addition to the parliament in the calendar year 2024, I know has been particularly vociferous in following the events that have occurred and the work that the government is seeking to undertake. Let me just say this from the outset in a way that I have articulated on a couple of occasions in the media but not in this place: we are naturally, as a government, very grateful for the support that the constituents of both Dunstan and Black have shown towards this government, but not for a moment do we interpret the results of those by-elections as being— Mrs Hurn interjecting: The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS House of Assembly Croydon Premier The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: Not for a moment does the government look at the— Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: The Minister for Infrastructure and members on my left, the Premier will be heard in silence. The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS House of Assembly Croydon Premier The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: Not for a moment does the government look at those results and believe that it translates to the fact that everything is rosy for everybody in South Australia. There are, of course, challenges within the community but there are also extraordinary opportunities. This government is focused on tackling those challenges and embracing those opportunities everywhere we can, while at the same time dealing with the issues that arise from time to time that are worthy of government intervention. It's an opportunity to reflect on a couple of the major policy efforts that this government has committed itself to throughout the course of this year. To my mind, one there are few more important than is the government's delivery of the Housing Roadmap, a comprehensive housing policy document, a comprehensive policy to actually unlock the growth of houses that this state so desperately needs and hasn't been given the— Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Members on my left, I can't hear the Premier. The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS House of Assembly Croydon Premier The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —policy emphasis that it has deserved in the past. One of the essential elements of the Housing Roadmap was to invest $1.5 billion into new water infrastructure, which was all about unlocking growth for housing opportunities in suburban Adelaide. We took that number from the $150 million that was allocated by the former government, who were more interested in the cheap politics of water prices, and we made the tough decisions to invest more money to unlock growth. That was on top of planning reform and on top of massive tax reform, to abolish a whole tax in perpetuity for absolutely every first-home buyer building a new home in this state, something that is just such a contrast to the retrospective tax impositions that we saw from a prior government. On top of tax reform and the water and the planning reform, we have also seen big reform in regard to the Housing Trust, the re-established South Australian Housing Trust—investments rather than selling off stock, actually building stock, and building more stock we are. Then, of course, we see HomeStart continue to deliver in ways that are now being attempted to be replicated in other parts of the state so that lower income, sometimes on occasions potentially more insecure income households, can get access to a low-deposit home loan, and that has been taken up in spades. There is so much more work to be done in this area. This government will not stop because we are seeing growth in our population, we are seeing optimism in the economy and we need to make sure that housing infrastructure goes a long way to meeting the demand that is coming our state's way.