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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-05-18 Daily Xml
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Social Housing

Ms PRATT (Frome) (14:24): My question is to the Minister for Human Services. How long does the minister think a vulnerable South Australian who has requested urgent access to housing support should have to wait to receive a response from her office? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Ms PRATT: The opposition has been contacted by a number of vulnerable South Australians whose cases have been brought to the attention of the minister's office, but who have then experienced lengthy waits for the minister to even acknowledge their issue, let alone provide assistance.

These include a woman at risk of homelessness whose case took seven days for the minister's office to even acknowledge; a family whose property needs urgent maintenance works, including an inoperable bathroom, whose case took 12 days for the minister's office to acknowledge; a displaced family staying in a motel after experiencing traumatic events, whose case has had no acknowledgement at all after being referred more than two weeks ago; and a woman who is sleeping rough who says she has had no contact from the minister's office, more than two weeks ago, after her very urgent situation was first referred by phone. All report that they have been ignored by the minister and that their situation remains unresolved.

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Treasurer is called to order.

The Hon. N.F. COOK (Hurtle Vale—Minister for Human Services) (14:25): All of which I am very happy to follow up. There are a couple of those that I am—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Unley is warned.

The Hon. N.F. COOK: Are you interested or are you just going to bark on over there?

The SPEAKER: Order! Minister, you will not respond to interjections.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Unley is called to order. The minister has the call.

The Hon. N.F. COOK: I can further expand on the 400 a day. That is across the homelessness sector and those calls are received through Uniting Communities, who provide support. There are hundreds and hundreds of people a day. One of the stories being relayed there actually does come to light. I believe it may be quite a high-profile case that involved the movement of a family of 12 people. They were not originally in public housing but were provided with emergency accommodation. There was a contact made to the shadow minister because they were given her email—because the person just figured she was still the person; not everybody is engaged in our system, I guess—and she contacted us at 4.51 on a Friday afternoon to talk about—

An honourable member interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Frome is called to order.

The Hon. N.F. COOK: —unsuitable accommodation. I understand in that particular case what the member is alleging—that there has been no resolution—is not, in fact, true. There has been resolution in relation to provision of housing.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Chaffey is called to order.

The Hon. N.F. COOK: There has been a resolution in relation to some of that housing but, as I explained before, it is really difficult to actually find housing outcomes. There was very little public housing built during the last four years. In fact, the numbers—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister has the call.

The Hon. N.F. COOK: What we are doing to respond to this—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Chaffey is warned.

The Hon. N.F. COOK: —is that, apart from being two months in, we've now got a full suite of staff within the ministerial office who are getting through what potentially is a backlog, but I am not sure on the particular cases, as I said, because there are so many that come through. I am very happy to follow up on every single one of those.

What I hope will happen over the next six to 12 months—because we have asked to speak to a number of providers of housing solutions so that we can provide innovative, practical and quick outcomes for people who are experiencing homelessness. I think we have heard of a number of people who are sleeping in tents, and it is just not suitable and it is not appropriate. We are reaching out directly to try to secure some more dignified and comfortable housing very quickly. On top of that we also now have said—

An honourable member interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is called to order.

The Hon. N.F. COOK: —'Are you okay? Are you alright?'

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister has the call.

The Hon. N.F. COOK: What we have been doing as well over the last month is prioritising a pipeline of building over the next four years. We have an injection of new money, so brand-new money, not just part of the general budget which I believe the then Premier wanted to go out and shout about in the media that they spend more money, all that sort of stuff—rubbish. We have $181 million of new money going into the system to provide for the construction of hundreds of new homes. So there will be 400 new homes.

Mr Whetstone interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey!

The Hon. N.F. COOK: We will bring online 350 homes. Many of them were empty for three years or more of the previous government—which is pretty shameful, to be honest. As well as that, we will be bringing up to a higher standard 3,000 other homes, homes that are required for decades. They are needed for decades to provide housing solutions—

Mr Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is called to order.

The Hon. N.F. COOK: —to South Australians just like the ones you talk about. But, please, if you would like to get back to me about the actual details—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. N.F. COOK: —I will give you—sorry, I have run out.

The SPEAKER: The member for Heysen on a point of order, which may have been resolved.

Mr TEAGUE: Standing order 98(b).

The SPEAKER: I think the minister has concluded her answer.

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