APY LANDS, HOUSING

The Hon. J.S. LEE (15:11): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Social Housing a question about APY lands housing repairs.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.S. LEE: Since Housing SA took over the maintenance of social housing properties on the APY lands in 2007, these communities have been experiencing large housing repair downfalls. It was reported in InDaily on 22 March 2012 that Housing SA is struggling with APY home repairs. It was revealed that Housing SA is under pressure from a large backlog of housing repair work on the APY lands.

Despite having reorganised the maintenance budget to focus on remote Aboriginal areas, Housing SA acknowledges that there are still complaints of houses being left unrepaired for longer than six months. Housing SA Director of Business Operations and Projects, Mr Brendan Moran, stated that the maintenance service for the past two or three years has probably been inadequate. My questions are:

1. Does the minister recognise that communities on the APY lands are being put at risk by living in unhealthy and rundown accommodation?

2. Can the minister confirm whether he has been fully briefed about the backlog of housing repairs on the APY lands under Housing SA?

3. Can the minister outline the major issues associated with the Housing SA maintenance programs and what actions have been taken to address the problems as an urgent priority?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion, Minister for Social Housing, Minister for Disabilities, Minister for Youth, Minister for Volunteers) (15:13): Housing SA is responsible for the provision of repairs and maintenance to community houses on the APY lands. Properties on homelands receive limited essential maintenance, as funding provision is not provided to them through the commonwealth funding agreement. In October 2011 Housing SA introduced a new maintenance contracting model whereby a head contractor was engaged to undertake all maintenance work on the APY lands. The contracting model includes a comprehensive preventive maintenance schedule across all communities on the lands (not the homelands).

Since 2011 response times on the APY lands for repairs have improved, which in turn has led to increased tenant requests for maintenance repairs, placing pressure on the budget. This is an important point to note: because our responsiveness to requests for repairs has improved, those requests have increased, and that is what is putting extra pressure on our maintenance and contracting work. Budget pressure from additional maintenance requests has led to work being prioritised, causing some delays for non-urgent repair work, but what we are doing is prioritising those works that are required in terms of health and safety.