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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-05-19 Daily Xml
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Housing Affordability

Mr BELL (Mount Gambier) (15:38): I want to talk about an issue contained not just to Mount Gambier but across probably all of Australia and certainly most parts of the world, and that is the housing crisis we are seeing unfold at the moment. In my electorate office, we are seeing a cohort of people who are homeless that we have not seen before. People who have jobs—sometimes low-paying jobs, sometimes not, sometimes double income—cannot get a rental premise in Mount Gambier. We are seeing case after case of people who are facing very desperate times. Just this week alone we have had four people come in who have had their tenancy terminated on their rental. The owners are aiming to put that house on the market, and there are no rentals they can afford in Mount Gambier.

This is a very complex issue, and it is not a simple solution, but there is a real opportunity here for a bipartisan approach, a long-term, solution-based approach, and one where I would like to see a dedicated committee be formed with equal representation of Labor, Liberal and Independents to commit and not play politics with the housing crisis which is unfolding and which is going to get worse over the coming months and years.

I would like that committee to look at a whole range of solutions and put forward recommendations that this government and future governments of either persuasion would agree to. I think it does need to recognise the fact that the federal government is very focused on first-home buyers, but what we are talking about here is rental affordability. It might surprise some people that Airbnb and Stayz accommodation just in Mount Gambier have 255 listings. A generation ago, those 255 listings or properties would be rented as part of the pool that could be used for rental properties.

We used to have public housing for teachers, nurses and police. Certainly, when I was teaching in Port Augusta and then returned to Mount Gambier we had our accommodation supplied as public services. We need a re-investment in those public services because they free up other properties. I do not know whether the NRAS scheme can be improved with the NRAS 2.0 included. There are a range of things that I think a committee dedicated to housing affordability could provide and give guidance to not only to this government but also to governments in the future; of course, land availability is one of those.

In response, I have put together a housing action team in Mount Gambier, and some of its recommendations to this government—and I will be writing formally to the minister—involve crisis accommodation funding being allocated locally instead of through the South Australian Housing Association. At the moment, ac.care do the assessment and then people have to wait around to find out whether or not that assessment is going to be funded through the bureaucracy in Adelaide.

Some issues that could be looked at include stamp duty incentives, low-cost housing inclusion for all housing estates, the need for public housing stock to be improved, more two-bedroom and sole occupant properties, a maintenance register, increased funding for ac.care (as funding has not increased for 11 years), more outreach services that assist people with mental health, alcohol and drug issues, and, of course, the bond and first two weeks' rent increasing in line with market conditions. I think a whole range of things can be addressed, and I am moving forward with a proposal for a committee to address it.

Time expired.

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