Public Housing

The Hon. T.T. NGO (15:18): My question is to the Minister for Human Services regarding housing. Can the minister confirm public comments by her agency that the approved maintenance budget for public housing will be less in 2023-24 than it was in 2020-21, and can the minister confirm public comments by her agency that an average of just 170 public housing properties will be built per year in coming years compared with the annual demolition of 300 and annual sales of 150?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (15:19): I thank the honourable member for his question. In terms of the maintenance budget, we have brought forward funding in our maintenance budget. The annual program is in the order of about $120 million a year. It has been, for the years 2015 to 2018-19, just under $20 million. In 2019-20, the budget was $121.2 million. In 2020-21, that has increased to $141.2 million, and a large part of that is that because of the stimulus funding we brought forward our maintenance budget.

As I think I have outlined in this place before, there is a range of different maintenance programs in terms of the Housing Authority. Some of them relate to when tenants vacate and the property is cleaned and painted and the like in preparation for the next set of tenants. Then we have other tenants who have been longer term tenants who might need particular upgrades, whether they be kitchens or bathrooms, that is considered from another fund. There is the emergency maintenance or responsive maintenance, if somebody has a roof leak or the like. The emergency ones, of course, we attend to within a particular period of time.

What the authority has sought to do and everybody, particularly home owners, would appreciate the fact that a stitch in time saves nine when it comes to housing. If you have a maintenance issue, particularly to the exterior of your property, the sooner you deal with it the less problems you cause down the track. So the Housing Authority has been embarking on trying to make those more proactive decisions in terms of the maintenance budget.

I have also spoken before in this place about the fact that there was not an asset audit done of the portfolio of some $10 billion worth of properties since 2003, so that is something that we undertook—commenced in 2018—and that is progressing very well, which gives us a much better picture of what the condition of the dwellings is and enables us to make those planned investments sooner rather than later.

As part of stimulus funding we are endeavouring to not just do more in terms of some of the planned maintenance but also trying to make sure that we are addressing those issues in a much more proactive fashion. I think I have forgotten what the second set of questions was; I am sorry.