Housing Availability

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (15:35): I am speaking today about the trickiness of this government and particularly the Minister for Housing in relation to transparency in housing and the need for supporting infrastructure in South Australia, including various government announcements and the like. You have to be living under a media rock not to have seen the evidence that came out of Budget and Finance last week in relation to the historic land release sites of Onkaparinga Heights, Sellicks, Dry Creek and Concordia in relation to the fact that only one of those has trunk mains available.

I have spoken many times about the poor practice of the Malinauskas government in rushing around to make announcements and discovering these sites—for example, doing an announcement on 12 February 2023 without having checked whether the supporting infrastructure was available. But it came as a surprise to everyone, including the media, because I think it ran on most of the TV stations, and certainly there was huge interest from The Advertiser and both the ABC and commercial radio stations about this fact, which had been effectively buried in the Housing Roadmap.

When the Minister for Housing did the presser in 2023, he talked about how the housing was expected to begin within two years, with foundations to be laid within one year. Construction on the first 100 was expected to begin the following year. That clearly has not happened, and that is the only site where trunk mains are available. But with the other four sites it was in effect buried on pages 61 and 62 of the Housing Roadmap where it talks about the code amendment process, land division application, other approvals and things, and, in code understood only to those who work in the sector, 'Water and wastewater infrastructure supply has been agreed between government and industry.'

That does not refer to any trunk mains that anyone is aware of, and the fact that there was so much interest in this issue I think speaks volumes. We have asked the minister about this in question time and received the typical patronising responses about, 'Well, didn't you realise that's where it was?' and how we all should have known. Nobody emerged from the Convention Centre 12 months ago to say, 'Oh my goodness, did you know that there are no trunk mains available?' because clearly it was not there. We are also aware that there are a number of developments where tankering has to take place, which is also a huge concern to people because there is a lack of transparency I think in that for the South Australian community.

I would also like to speak about a response that the minister gave about the case of Jakki Abernatt, who has done media—a very brave lady to speak about her situation. She is in the private rental sector. She has been seeking that the housing rules for affordable housing, which is 75 per cent of market rent, be relaxed in this current housing crisis, where someone who is a single person in the private sector can be paying north of $400 a week, and an affordable property would be well within her reach.

The minister has talked about how the 30 per cent rule, which yes, admittedly, we applied—it was a very different housing market then—is to make sure that housing is designed to go to families, which is just such a bizarre response because that is not the housing which Jakki is seeking to enter. It has nothing to do with it. She said that she is looking for a one-bedroom apartment, not a two or three-bedroom place. She says:

If…the rule is purely designed to enable families affordable rentals, then [the minister] should have his department do their due diligence in ensuring that the 30% mandate is not applied to accommodation designed for single occupants.

Plus, I doubt he'd find a family anywhere…where both parents/carers aren't working (often holding down multiple jobs between them), and hence most likely still earning more than someone single-handedly managing rent on a low income.

I understand that she has an appointment with him. We wish her the best of luck and I hope he changes his mind.