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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-11-27 Daily Xml
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HOUSING SA

Mrs VLAHOS (Taylor) (15:06): My question is to the Minister for Social Housing. Can the minister please inform the house about how this government is providing housing for South Australians who require assistance?

Mrs REDMOND: Point of order, Mr Speaker.

The SPEAKER: Yes?

Mrs REDMOND: Again, the member used the term 'please', in contravention of Speaker Lewis's ruling.

The SPEAKER: Yes, well, it is undesirable; I agree with the member for Heysen. The backbench does not have to beg the ministry for answers.

Mrs VLAHOS: I withdraw my 'please'.

The SPEAKER: Thank you. Minister for Communities.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light—Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion, Minister for Social Housing, Minister for Disabilities, Minister for Youth, Minister for Volunteers) (15:07): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I would like to thank the member for this very important question—and, Mr Speaker, I thought courtesy was still alive, but clearly not by some. This government provides a number of vital services to many South Australians who are either on low incomes or who experience disadvantage in their lives.

The assistance comes mostly in the form of Housing SA rental properties, but some may not know that Housing SA provides financial support for more than 20,000 households each year by way of bond and rental payments to enable them to rent privately. This figure is almost 10 times the number of households which Housing SA allocates into its public housing each year, and is extremely important given that the cost of an initial bond is sometimes up to for to six times the cost of weekly rent.

Without this service, many South Australian families would struggle to find the money required to set up a home and would be either homeless or forced to live in overcrowded conditions with family and friends. Additionally, Housing SA provides dedicated support to individuals and families to secure and maintain housing in the private rental market. Through the Private Rental Liaison Officer Program, we provide more than 1,600 families each year with information and advice and help around 700 families to secure private rental housing. At the same time, Mr Speaker—

Mr Gardner: How many families per staff member?

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: At the same time, there is concern for funding of either vital services. For instance, Mr Speaker, last year, FAHCSIA, with pressure from Liberal states, only agreed to a one-year transitional funding arrangement to continue the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness rather than a new three-year agreement which would have secured vital services for this sector.

Now that there has been a change in the government at a commonwealth level, there is concern that the funding for future agreements of this type will be either reduced or cut altogether. If this was to happen, South Australia's ability to help homeless people or those at risk of homelessness would be dramatically reduced and affect the most vulnerable members of our community.

Last year Housing SA funded homelessness services under the National Partnership Agreement, and these services provided more than 17,000 instances of help to individuals and families in greatest need. Given the cuts we have seen in both New South Wales and Queensland, and the changes to the public housing system in these new Liberal-run states, I can only wonder what the federal government will do if left to its own devices.

There has been speculation in the interstate media that Queensland is looking to privatise the entire public housing system and that New South Wales is seeking to implement a bedroom tax on public housing tenants who have properties that are deemed to be underoccupied by the people who live in them.

The SPEAKER: A point of order from the member for Stuart.

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: I believe the minister is debating the issue.

The SPEAKER: No; I do not think it is debate to offer information about what happens in other jurisdictions.

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Can I seek some clarification, sir?

The SPEAKER: Yes.

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: I think that when he said 'I can only imagine if this was a Liberal government' that is debate, and hypothetical.

The SPEAKER: I will listen carefully, because if the Minister for Housing is purporting to tell us what a future South Australian Liberal government would do, that would be debate.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: They have no plan. It is incumbent on those opposite to lobby their federal counterparts to ensure that these grants are not part of any cost-cutting measure which might be introduced—

Ms CHAPMAN: Point of order, sir.

The SPEAKER: There is a point of order.

Ms CHAPMAN: Now the minister is telling us what we should be doing. He is supposed to be answering the question about what he is doing.

The SPEAKER: It is in the nature of a two-party system that one party will tell the other party what it should be doing.

Ms CHAPMAN: Point of order. It is now clearly debate.

The SPEAKER: I am listening carefully to what the Minister for Housing is saying. Minister.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: Reducing or cutting grants to the states in the areas of homelessness funding and other public housing initiatives is counterproductive, and will only create a bigger problem in the long term.

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