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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-05-14 Daily Xml
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Housing SA

Ms SANDERSON (Adelaide) (14:30): My question is to the Minister for Social Housing. Given the government's policy of redeveloping South Australian Housing Trust properties built prior to 1968 within 10 kilometres of the city by 2020, can the minister explain how the conditions set out in the rental agreements for tenants of South Australian Housing Trust properties will be met with the implementation of this policy. Mr Speaker, with your leave and with that of the house, in case you are not aware, one of the conditions is that:

…the Trust agrees to provide the tenant with other Trust accommodation—

The SPEAKER: The member for Adelaide is seeking leave to make an explanation?

Ms SANDERSON: Yes. I seek leave to make the explanation.

The SPEAKER: Yes.

Ms SANDERSON: The condition states:

…the Trust agrees to provide the tenant with other Trust accommodation of a standard at least equal to that of the premises, with land of at least the same size as that of the premises, and in the same area or a nearby area.

The SPEAKER: I understand the member for Adelaide sent letters to Housing SA tenants about this matter, as did the member for Bragg. The Deputy Premier.

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Justice Reform, Minister for Planning, Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Child Protection Reform) (14:31): Thank you, Mr Speaker, and can I say that the—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Okay. Since the dawn of time—

Mr Gardner: You're like a Batman villain: 'The Anaesthetist'.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: That's good!

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is on two warnings.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: In the beginning there was the Housing Trust, and darkness was on the face of the deep—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: You're confusing Genesis with John's gospel.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Yes, indeed. Anyway, I don't want to waste my valuable time on that. It may come as a surprise, but the Housing Trust—or Housing SA as it is presently called—has been going through the process of building and renewing its stock since the dawn of the Housing Trust.

The SPEAKER: In 1938, I think.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Indeed, it is later than the dawn of time, but a significant time ago.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I stand corrected by the member for Schubert—mid-1930s.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: And as the member for Newland points out, some 4.5 billion years after the dawn of time. Nonetheless, still a long time ago—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: That's by current estimates. The point is they have been doing this for a very, very long time, and whether they are renewing one property, or two properties, or five properties, or 50 properties, or 4,000 properties, they go about it in exactly the same way.

The way they go about it, Mr Speaker, as you well know, because a number of these people are constituents of yours, as they are of mine—there is a visit from the people representing Housing SA who talk to the people and make arrangements suitable to those people for alternative accommodation. In many if not most cases, there is an attempt made that the new properties which are the result of the development will be an opportunity for that person to return to the community from which they have come, except they return to the community from which they have come in a new property, which is probably more suitable to their requirements; and they often want to move.

Can I say also, Mr Speaker, that members might be surprised to know that there is a complete disconnect between the actual stock held by the Housing Trust, some 44,000 properties, and the actual requirements of the people who are the prime target audience for the Housing Trust service. In fact, most of the people who want these properties, you will find, are single people, or perhaps one or two people but a large number of single people looking for properties. Mr Speaker, you would know, as I know many people across there perhaps would know, that most of the properties are in fact not designed for single people at all, they are three-bedroom properties which were designed for the sort of cohort of people who used to be the primary group—

Ms REDMOND: Point of order, sir: the question was about the specifics of the contractual or lease arrangements entered into between the Housing Trust and the tenants and this answer is going nowhere near that.

The SPEAKER: No; the Deputy Premier is in orbit but he is heading towards, by centrifugal force, the substance of the question.

Ms Redmond: Centrifugal force means further away, sir.

The SPEAKER: No, that's centripetal.

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: I think that's pronounced Uranus. As I was trying to explain, this has been going on for a great deal of time. What we are doing now and in the future will be, on a larger scale, exactly what has happened in the past. The idea that people who are Housing Trust tenants should be frightened by correspondence from the member for Adelaide and the member for Bragg is, quite frankly, very, very annoying.

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