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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-03-08 Daily Xml
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HomeBuilder Program

Mr COWDREY (Colton) (14:19): My question is to the Treasurer. Has the Treasurer written to the federal Treasurer to request an extension to the HomeBuilder scheme and, if not, why not? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr COWDREY: It has now been four weeks since the Treasurer informed the house that he had not written to the federal Treasurer to request an extension to HomeBuilder. Up to 1,200 South Australians, including first-home buyers, could lose their HomeBuilder grants of up to $25,000 through no fault of their own. HomeBuilder deadlines have been previously extended for existing applications in April 2021. It was announced that the construction commencement requirement would be extended from six months to 18 months due to unanticipated construction delays.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer) (14:19): I thank the member for Colton for his question. The member for Colton raises the same issue that he did in the last sitting week, and the advice that I provide to the house is the same now as it was then. I have an enormous amount of sympathy for the people who find themselves in the situation where they may find out that they are not able to access the HomeBuilder grant. The member for Colton advocates that I urge the federal government to reopen the scheme—

Mr Cowdrey: No, I'm not—just extend the deadline.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Treasurer has the call.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: The member for Colton asks that I urge the commonwealth government to reopen the scheme, as he says, to extend the deadline for the group of people who may find themselves in the situation where they miss out. As I have previously advised the house, in my view that would be inequitable to the many hundreds, indeed thousands, of South Australians and, more generally, Australians who have applied for HomeBuilder over the course of the last nearly three years and missed out for a range of reasons, not being able to satisfy a range of criteria.

This is a scheme, as the member for Colton knows, that has been closed for nearly two years now. The extensions which he speaks about were granted nearly two years ago and as I said at that time, when I was addressing this issue in the house, while I feel very sympathetically for the people who may be impacted by this, I don't see it as equitable on all of those other people who have missed out on a range of different criteria.

When I last addressed this topic in this place I did say to the member for Colton that, to the extent to which the individual circumstances may be able to be raised with the Department of Treasury and Finance RevenueSA officers to see if something could be done about their particular circumstances, I would gladly make that available. When I got back to the office—and I conducted the same task again today when I became aware that the member for Colton would be raising this issue in this place—I asked my office if a letter had been written, not by me to the commonwealth, but by the member for Colton to me to raise this issue at all. I was shocked to discover that, despite the member for Colton walking out into the media and using the unfortunate circumstances—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —that some South Australians find themselves in for political purposes—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —he calls on me to take the action—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Colton, member for Schubert!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —which he is too lazy to take himself. I am aware from media reports—

Ms Stinson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Badcoe!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —that some people may find themselves in a difficult situation with regard to finance, for example, for the property they are seeking to build. That is why I made the comment last sitting week that, perhaps if their financier is looking at imposing, for example, Lenders Mortgage Insurance for the first time, maybe they would be served by their advocate, the member for Colton, making their details available to me or my office so that I could get them in touch with the government's home lender, HomeStart, that doesn't charge Lenders Mortgage Insurance, which may save some people more than $10,000.

I find it a little bit rich, when all of us in this place sympathise with the people who may be caught by this situation—

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Schubert!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —when I have made an offer to do what this government legitimately is able to, the member for Colton—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is warned.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —has not put in any effort himself in order to—

The Hon. D.G. Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Unley!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —advance their actual interests.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for West Torrens! The member for Badcoe is warned and the member for Schubert is warned. Member for Colton.

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