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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-06-30 Daily Xml
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Disability Housing Program

Ms SANDERSON (Adelaide) (15:13): My question is to the Minister for Social Housing. Given that the budget omits any mention of meeting any targets or new targets in relation to disability housing, how is the government planning on addressing disability housing, especially given the likely increase in demand due to the NDIS coming into effect in 2018?

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light—Minister for Disabilities, Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (15:13): I thank the honourable member for her question. We had in fact last year initiated a major program in disability housing. I think that it was around 102 houses, which the state government has initiated through its program, but more importantly—and this has been put on the federal agenda through the Disability Reform Council—we are awaiting the final version of a discussion paper by the federal government to get a national policy.

Accommodation is going to be a challenge across the country. Finding the right amount of accommodation and the right type of accommodation will be a challenge. That is why we, as a state, actually drafted some proposals some 12 to 18 months ago which had to be put aside when the commonwealth decided to back away from providing some seed funding for accommodation for people living with disability. The money was going to be used to find models of providing that accommodation, in particular how do we get money from the non-government sector into providing provision because there is going to be a shortage unless we do something about that?

The state government has done two things. One, we have actually built some accommodation to meet some immediate needs and very specialised housing for people's individual's needs. Secondly, we have been trying to work with the commonwealth to make sure that we meet those targets. I have to say, the not-for-profit sector and the state government are worried that we do not believe the commonwealth are taking this issue as seriously at this point in time as they think. There will be a lag time involved from the time the policy position is adopted from delivering—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: No, no. The commonwealth through—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: Yes, the commonwealth through the NDIA made it very clear about some money available to the states to look into some innovative programs to provide it. In good faith, we have spent money in developing some programs. The commonwealth then withdrew that amount of money and had said that money is not going to be available, but rather it will be put into each individual plan, each individual person's plan. You just cannot bring that money together to make something up-front, so what I would say is that our colleagues opposite should support us and make sure the commonwealth actually develops this policy very quickly and makes it very clear what they are going to do to assist and work with the states to provide housing answers.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: Not at all. No, the state has made it very clear. We have a role to play and that is why we went out and tried to do up some models based on some funding we were expecting. The commonwealth, as part of its federal cutbacks, decided to withdraw their money.

Mr Williams interjecting:

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: Well—

The SPEAKER: The member for MacKillop is warned.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: The member for MacKillop, it is a pity he doesn't know much about the NDIS—

Mr Knoll interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is warned a second time.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: —because he wouldn't have made the interjection. This state has signed up to the NDIS scheme, and funding for the whole scheme comes from that pool of money. We have committed our portion of the funding. The commonwealth has not. In fact, the not-for-profit sector are pushing the commonwealth to release some of the additional money which is collected through the levy on Medicare which the commonwealth has refused to do.

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