National Partnership Agreement on Remote Indigenous Housing

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (14:52): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Human Services regarding the National Partnership Agreement on Remote Indigenous Housing.

Leave granted.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: On 4 September, the minister in this chamber was asked:

…can the minister confirm her answer that there is funding on an ongoing basis for remote Aboriginal housing, that is, ongoing funding for maintenance and new builds of housing?

The minister answered:

…there is sufficient funding available that is carried over for us to enable these programs to continue without any threat.

In statements made earlier this week, Mr Buchan, the Chief Executive of the SA Housing Authority, definitively stated that there is only funding for maintenance under this program and that funding had ceased for the building of any new housing in remote Aboriginal communities. He was asked:

…new builds that would have otherwise occurred, had the program kept running under commonwealth funding, have stopped; is that right?

Mr Buchan answered:

Yes, that's correct. We don't have a new build program in place at the moment.

Both of these statements can't be simultaneously true. My question to the minister is: is there funding for the building of new remote Aboriginal housing and, if so, how much is it?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:54): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his questions. Quite simply, yes, both statements are correct. In terms of when I have sought advice from my agencies previously, the Department of Human Services and what is now the South Australian Housing Authority, sought to ensure there was maintenance funding available on an ongoing basis. I have reported that to this place before and provided that information.

In terms of the South Australian Housing Authority, we have a new governance structure that is quite different to what it was previously. The arrangements the previous government had were described by the Auditor-General as, I think the word used was 'dysfunctional'. Certainly, that is the feedback I've had from the sector, where the assets and tenancy arrangements were managed through a formal arrangement under two quite separate agencies and we had a board that did not have line of sight over the entire organisation.

As of 1 July, those governance arrangements have been rectified and a new board has been in place from 1 November, the ongoing board. As we speak they are doing a consultation in terms of all the housing matters going forward. We are working through a comprehensive housing and homelessness strategy, which involves the non-government sector, the development sector, and tenant and homeless advocates. They are going to drive how these matters are managed going forward.

In terms of the Housing Trust per se, there has been a pause put on builds generally because we needed to take stock and rearrange the governance arrangements, so it should not really come as any surprise that there are no new builds in the pipeline. As I have said previously just today, we are working assiduously towards executing a new remote housing agreement as well.