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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-04-30 Daily Xml
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HOUSING AFFORDABILITY

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (14:51): My question is to the Minister for Housing. How is the government working with the development and building industries to supply more affordable housing?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Minister for Families and Communities, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister for Housing, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Disability, Minister Assisting the Premier in Cabinet Business and Public Sector Management) (14:51): The South Australian government has been playing a leading role, not only in South Australia but also in the nation in innovation, in relation to affordable housing. I suppose that observation is not one that we make about ourselves; it is made by Julian Disney, the chair of the National Affordable Housing Summit, and the national housing minister, Tanya Plibersek.

We have been invited, together with the commonwealth, to write the national policy that will guide the new policies for the nation in relation to affordable housing. We had substantial input in relation to the design of a range of commonwealth policies, which have now become, of course, the policies of the new national government.

One of the things we have always believed is that there needs to be a partnership with a range of different players who have something to offer in terms of affordable housing. In a sense, in South Australia we have forgotten what we once understood, that is, that government needed to play a role—at least a facilitating role if not a direct role—in relation to the market to ensure that affordable housing objectives were delivered.

Simply leaving it to the market and standing back has never been the policy of this government in relation to affordable housing. One of the things we believed was that there was the capacity for the private sector to adjust the sort of supply it put on the ground to address the needs of South Australian citizens who were looking for houses.

It is very easy to tap into the usual ways of doing things and the usual processes for building houses. Many private sector builders have made a good business out of simply producing houses in the same sort of way they have for decades. What we were seeking to do was challenge them to do something different, something that addressed the needs of that group of citizens at the low to moderate income end who have been locked out of home ownership. This is very much at the heart of our housing plan for South Australia.

We have been forging ahead with new partnerships between government, non-government, private, council and community sectors. In relation to our government, we have not just used the existing instruments of housing policy; we have looked beyond the mere provision of public housing. We have looked at our home finance arm (HomeStart Finance), our planning system and the way in which our land releases are brought to bear and, as a consequence, we have seen some terrific results.

One of the things that we did was to challenge the private sector to do something about the way houses are designed. Just last week, I was pleased to officially launch the display home that Hickinbotham Homes have produced as part of its Affordable Architect series. A beautiful new home designed by award-winning architect Max Pritchard and featuring impressive environmental design features was opened in the Hawkesbury Park redevelopment area. They are designed to make the most of each property's solar orientation to improve natural heating and cooling, saving money and also, of course, protecting our environment.

The Affordable Architect series comprises 46 different designs that come in price points between $67,800 and $129,890; a third of the range retails for less than $90,000. When you put that together with land packages in the north ranging between $80,000 and $120,000, you can see that we are beginning to be able to put house and land packages on the ground for around, or less than, $200,000. That, matched with some of the HomeStart loan products, especially some of the concessional products—the Breakthrough Loan products—really does begin to bring home ownership within the reach of many low to moderate income earners.

The Minister for Infrastructure has heeded the calls of industry for land release and there is a substantial series of land releases around the Adelaide metropolitan area which will also address the issue of land prices which, of course, are a significant contributor. Through partnerships like this one at Hawkesbury Park, Housing SA is able to link eligible purchasers with land packages through our Property Locator website. I should pay tribute to Michael Hickinbotham for his tremendous work, and I hope that other private sector partners pick up the call.

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