Question Time

Housing

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (14:09): My question is to the Premier. Does the Premier stand by the comments made by the Treasurer today? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: The Treasurer, at a morning media press conference, said, 'I don't think anyone could suggest that the government should be doing more on housing.'

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:10): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. Of course, I think the Treasurer is absolutely right—absolutely right to point out the fact and absolutely right to point out the volume of work that is being undertaken by this government in respect of housing.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Housing, the member for Playford, the member for Morialta and other members who are interjecting, I will remind you that it is disorderly. The Premier will be heard in silence.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: Thanks, Mr Speaker. As the Leader of the Opposition would well be aware, the government has done not just a few little policy tweaks in respect of housing but indeed some very substantial policy reform. It has been a combined team effort within the government. We know, as always, there is more work to be done and we remain very vigilant about opportunities to do more. But it's also true that, when it comes to objective, independent analysis of the government's policy effort, we continue to outperform the rest of the country by a very substantial margin.

Independent organisations, such as the Housing Industry Association, have declared South Australia as the number one jurisdiction in the country for housing policy—number one in the country. We eclipse everyone else, and everybody else in the country envies our record of policy reform to unlock housing growth.

Of course, doing the policy is one thing but there is also making sure that our policy translates into results. I was very pleased to be with the Treasurer and also the Minister for Housing a couple of weeks ago in the Treasurer's electorate, in Seaton, where the HIA formally released its national figures regarding what is actually happening on the ground in terms of housing growth. Yet again, they ranked every state around the country and, yet again, South Australia was number one.

It's not just the HIA; it's also the Business Council of Australia, it's also CommSec and it's also the Australian Bureau of Statistics, which is now frequently releasing data that demonstrates that in housing growth, housing approvals, housing construction and housing completions our rates exceed those of the rest of the country by a very long way—it's not by a little bit but by a long way. We are not ahead of the national average, we are number one—number one.

The Leader of the Opposition, if he had his way, would be turning the taps off and cutting the pipework off in the northern suburbs of Adelaide. That is his policy. If the Leader of the Opposition took the time, for instance, to visit the southern suburbs of Adelaide or the northern suburbs of Adelaide—I acknowledge that Senator Antic was out there, doing his best during the federal election campaign. I am not too sure if that helped the Liberal Party or us, but that is another matter.

If the Leader of the Opposition at least took the time to do what his master did in the last federal election and went to the northern suburbs, he would see pipes, massive pipes that the Minister for Housing can walk through, that are going into the ground as we speak, in a way that hasn't happened for a very long period of time indeed. We are getting on with the task, we are making the difference where it matters, and others are taking notice.