Retirement Villages

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (15:00): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Health and Wellbeing—

The Hon. C.M. Scriven: He won't answer.

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS: —regarding retirement villages. Can I say, I bet you he does answer my question. I bet you he does.

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Mr Stephens will not engage in conversation.

Leave granted.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! I will move on.

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS: Given the growing population of older South Australians, it is important to provide a range of accommodation options. Retirement villages, for many people, provide a good model to downsize from their family home to an independent living option. In recent years, concerns have been expressed about the operation of retirement villages, particularly interstate. Can the minister provide the house with an update on any measures the government is taking to protect retirement village residents and providers?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:00): I thank the honourable member for his question. I will certainly try to be brief. We have other questions to move to. I would like to thank the honourable member for his question. It's important that we provide a legislative framework that supports a vigorous retirement village industry and protects residents.

In 2016, parliament passed a new Retirement Villages Act, replacing the previous one, which had been in place for almost 30 years. The passing of the new act built on earlier and important work undertaken in this parliament, namely a 2013 House of Assembly select committee review of the act. I hope it's not unparliamentary for me to reflect positively on the other place.

The select committee's findings and the 34 recommendations highlighted the need to strengthen the legislative base of the retirement villages model in the context of the 'greying' of South Australia's baby boomer generation. At the time, in 2013, the committee reported there were more than 500 retirement villages, with a combined residency of 17,689. Some seven years later, the number of villages has grown by 12 and there are now more than 18,000 South Australians residing in them. That's a 2.3 per cent increase in registered villages over a seven-year period and a 6.8 per cent increase in residences.

Today, approximately 26,000 South Australians live in a retirement village. Our smallest village has just two residences and the largest has 347. When parliament passed the act in 2016, it deemed that a review would take place. The act commenced in January 2018. Accordingly, now is the time to review.

The first stage of the review has seen the release of a 50-page discussion paper. The discussion paper is divided into two parts with the second part seeking structured input around 36 topics. While there are a lot of topics addressed in the paper, respondents do not have to provide feedback on every topic. Feedback can be provided by email, post or via the YourSAy website. The closing date for feedback is 26 March.

Earlier this month, I wrote to all members of parliament to make sure they were aware that the review has commenced, to provide them with a copy of the discussion paper and to encourage them to promote the review amongst their constituents.

The Marshall Liberal government is working to ensure that the Retirement Villages Act continues to maintain the right balance between the responsibilities of the tens of thousands of older South Australians who live in retirement villages and the operators of those facilities. I look forward to providing parliament with a report on the outcome of the review later this year.