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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-11-23 Daily Xml
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PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE: COMMON GROUND—PORT AUGUSTA

Mr ODENWALDER (Little Para) (11:09): I move:

That the 420th report of the committee, entitled Common Ground—Port Augusta, be noted.

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (11:09): I would like to say a few words about this project. Supporting low income, homeless people in Port Augusta is an exceptionally important task which does need to be addressed, and I do not shy away from that whatsoever. I also need to say, as forcefully as I can, that the people I represent, who live in the area where these Common Ground projects are proposed to go, overwhelmingly oppose it going there.

I did make some submissions on their behalf to the committee. I was, in fact, invited to present to the committee, which I was not able to do simply because in the middle of one week I was invited to come to Adelaide to present to the committee in the middle of the next week, and it just was not possible at that notice. But I did put in three written submissions, one for myself, and two from other local Port Augusta people.

The concerns that the people I represent have are really to do with the very great likelihood of antisocial behaviour in their neighbourhoods, and also the great likelihood that their property values will diminish significantly. Anybody who knows the geography around Port Augusta knows that where these projects are proposed to go is a fairly short walk from the CBD, and all of the people who live near Augusta Terrace and Boston Street are concerned about their property values, as are all the people who live between those two streets and the CBD, and they are very worried about foot traffic back and forth.

I have no doubt that the Common Ground people will do their best to administer this project as well as they possibly can. This is an issue that has been going on for a long time. I have met with Ms Sue Crafter, the previous executive director of Common Ground. I have met with Ms Maria Palumbo, the current Executive Director of Common Ground, and I have no doubt that they will do their very best to make sure that this project is run well, and it looks after the people it is intended to look after. The problem is, though, that there are many people and many dwellings in this part of Port Augusta, and they overwhelmingly oppose it. I went to a public meeting where, it is fair to say, there was one person who was strongly vocally in support of the project, but there were dozens of other people who were overwhelmingly opposed to it, for the types of reasons that I have already outlined.

I would also like to put on record here that I have made two suggestions consistently to the Common Ground people, in the likelihood that this project would go ahead regardless of local opposition. I would like them to adjust the criteria that they use for people who get to live in these properties. I have had a verbal undertaking that they will do their best to do that. One of them is the $42,000 income threshold, so that people who earn less than $42,000 per annum are considered low income and, therefore, eligible to live in these properties.

Now, $42,000 is not a low income by Port Augusta standards, and I know that many people in Port Augusta would consider that to be quite an insult. Many people in Port Augusta have lived there for a long time, they have raised families, they have been responsible citizens, and have done their best to contribute to the community on a lot less than $42,000 a year. So I have suggested that they should be targeting people who are in the realm of $30,000 a year or below for the Common Ground project.

I understand that, in terms of a statewide context, that is a very low income. I am not saying that they have to earn nothing. They do not have to be living on the streets eating breadcrumbs but I do not believe that an income in the vicinity of $40,000 should entitle people to this sort of housing when there are many people well below that level who should access it. I have asked that they set their own standard much lower than $42,000.

The other thing that I have asked them to do on the assumption that this project will go ahead, is that they confine the residents—the people who are eligible to access this housing—to local Port Augusta people. I do not mean people whose families have been there for generations but, perhaps, people who have been there for a couple of years, because another thing that people in Port Augusta are very concerned about, and think is unfair, is that they run the risk of importing other town's problems, and potentially Adelaide's problems, into their community, importing social problems from elsewhere.

If this project was only eligible to local Port Augusta people who need the help, then the other people already living in the area would find it far more palatable. I do not think that they will find it attractive, but they will certainly find it far more palatable to know that if there are homeless people in Port Augusta, that those homeless people will get to live in the Common Ground projects in Boston Street and Augusta Terrace, not homeless people from Adelaide, not homeless people from any other part of the state. That then would be far more palatable for them because, number one, it is giving help to local people; and, number two, if there is, as they expect, antisocial behaviour coming out of this project by putting people all together in one area, then at least they know it is people who, potentially, are already causing the problems in Port Augusta anyway, so it is not importing more problems into the city.

Those are two suggestions I have made verbally and in writing for as long as I have been in this place to the Common Ground people. I hope that they will include those two suggestions when it comes to assessing who is eligible and actually handing out places to people. I think that supporting low income, homeless people is without a doubt a very important priority. I am sure every person in this house would agree with that. That can be done at taxpayers' expense; that could be done with support from the government broadly; but it should not be done with an added impost to local people who live in Port Augusta who have spent decades trying to pay off their mortgages, who have tried to upgrade their houses.

I am not talking about particularly well-off people. This is not an affluent part of Port Augusta, but this is a part of Port Augusta where people have done the right things on very normal incomes, worked very hard for all their lives. They have had real estate agents tell them that their houses might drop in value, potentially by $100,000, overnight once this project is up and running. I think that is far too high an impost for these people to have to pay over and above the tax impost to which of course we all contribute and understand that our taxes should be going to support low income people.

Thank you for the opportunity to say a few words. I would ask the chair of the committee, if possible, in future to give more notice for country members to come down and give evidence to committees. I understand lots of things happen at short notice, but I would be grateful for that, because I would very dearly have loved to come and present and perhaps even bring some people from Port Augusta with me. Thank you for taking note of the correspondence that I did send in.

Motion carried.

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