Public Housing

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (15:37): My question is to the Minister for Human Services regarding housing.

1. Will the prospective public housing tenants be required to bid against each other for homes under the new policy for open inspections after they've already spent years proving their eligibility and waiting for an offer of housing?

2. Exactly what safeguards are in place for the mental health of people who may attend dozens of open inspections for public housing and never be offered a home?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (15:37): I think I have already responded to a number of elements of this question. The reference to bidding is curious. I'm not sure if the honourable member is implying that people will be bidding up in terms of how much rent they pay. Is that—

The Hon. R.P. Wortley: No.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: Okay. I'm not quite sure what the substance of the question is at all, then, but that's Labor for you. I have already explained that at the interview process, where people meet with Housing SA to let them know what the parameters are in terms of where they would like to live and the sorts of properties that are either suitable for them or not, all of those elements are taken into consideration.

There continue to be allocations which are made separate to these hard-to-let properties, which is the normal allocation process, and a number of people that he would be referring to, who have mental health challenges, continue to be serviced by those. This is merely a supplementary process, because we've got some hard-to-let properties which we think that people, if they were given more opportunity to view them, may well decide to accept rather than the existing process, which applies across the board to every single property and which is quite arduous.