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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-07-06 Daily Xml
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Bills

Appropriation Bill 2023

Estimates Committees

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (17:18): I bring up the report of Estimates Committee A and, on behalf of the member for Giles, the report of Estimates Committee B, and move:

That the reports be received.

Motion carried.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: I bring up the minutes of proceedings of Estimates Committee A and, on behalf of the member for Giles, the minutes of proceedings of Estimate Committee B, and move:

That the minutes of proceedings be incorporated in the Votes and Proceedings.

Motion carried.

The Hon. N.D. CHAMPION (Taylor—Minister for Trade and Investment, Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Minister for Planning) (17:19): I move:

That the proposed expenditures referred to Estimates Committees A and B be agreed to.

Firstly, let me thank all the participants in the estimates committees. From my perspective, my estimates were conducted by government members and opposition members with a great deal of polite inquiry. They were done with a great deal of decency, and I certainly think that we had a very productive occasion in estimates from my perspective, and I think from the inquiring questions from the opposition as well.

We have to thank all the officials who presented over estimates. It is a lot of work for those officials, so we have to begin by thanking the Department of Trade and Treasury and Finance, for all of their hard work during the budget period. From my perspective, I thank my department—the Department for Trade and Investment led by David Reynolds and all the directors and staff of the department—for all their hard work in their preparations for estimates.

It reflects all their hard work during the year. Of course, it is the same for the PLUS team led so ably by Sally Smith, who is a really great public servant, and the team at Renewal, led by Mr Chris Menz. Again, it is a great organisation led by a great chief executive. I certainly appreciate all the advice that I get from Mr Reynolds, Ms Smith and Mr Menz over the course of the year. They do incredibly important work.

From my perspective this is an important budget for my constituents in Taylor. They expect us to work hard and they expect this parliament to work hard on their behalf. They are often people with modest incomes and often they rely on precarious work or work that is not as well remunerated as I think I would like.

For them to see the parliament working, for them to see the government working, for them to see the government's priorities of health, cost of living, housing and so many other important things like child protection and education—for them to see the parliament working in such a collegial way, as I think the parliament has worked today on a great many bills, is reassuring certainly to my constituents and to the broader body politic, broader electorate.

I should say that as Minister for Planning and Minister for Housing and Urban Development, the most pressing issue that is always brought up with me is housing. Maslow's hierarchy of needs tells us something that we all know: that in order to progress in the world you need stable and secure housing and, from that, everything else flows. If you have insecure housing, it is hard to get a job. It is hard to start a family. It is hard to look after your family. It is hard to build any sort of financial surplus. It is hard to have a sense of security. Housing is absolutely critical to that.

If you have stable and secure housing, if you have that predictable sense of security, which housing gives you, then it allows you to do all those other things that are important: getting a job, seeking vocational training, higher education, and looking after family members whether they be children, siblings or parents, or whether they be part of an extended family. All those things rely on housing.

The one worry that keeps me up at night is that this government, as with many governments around the country, has inherited a housing crisis, a housing emergency, and that requires governments to respond. This government knows that in its bones, and one of the things we—and I as Minister for Planning—have set out to do is have the government-led Hackham land release occur, with 2,000 allotments and a suburb name change to Onkaparinga Heights. We want to bring those allotments to market.

We have also seen a number of privately led code amendments. The Thaxted Park Golf Club is privately led with 131 allotments—a small but important initiative. Kidman Park has 400 allotments. Again, these all add up. Albert Park is mixed use. It is council led and the City of Charles Sturt should be congratulated on leading it, with 550 allotments. All those code amendments are often challenging for local communities, but I think communities understand that we do have to provide housing for people because we do not just have issues with people moving to the state through migration, but we have seen a turnaround in the net interstate outflows that we have had.

For 20 or 30 years, we have had people leaving the state. Often, many of our young graduates, our most entrepreneurial people, have left the state and have not been able to return. That has now turned around. We are now a city that people want to stay in and be in and return to, and that is important. We also have a change in the household formation rate. Basically, there are more people living on their own for longer. That is a good thing, as people remain in their family homes as they get older and do not depart to nursing homes any earlier than they should.

We also have the rise of constellation families, as opposed to nuclear families, often with parents who have joint custody. Those households do not get any smaller, but that doubles the demand for housing for each constellation family, as opposed to a nuclear family. I do not make any judgements about that household formation but it is occurring and it is placing pressure on the housing market. It means we have to build more houses than we did in the past to accommodate the same number of families.

Of course, we just have more people living on their own. That means that there is an increased demand for housing but also an increased demand for really well-designed, strategically infilled sites where there is activity that is both commercial and residential, where people can work and live in the same place, where there is public transport, where there are education facilities, where there are social facilities, where there are retail and hospitality facilities, so that people who might live on their own do not have to be alone. That is all very important.

There are predictions that we will have to accommodate for some 300,000 houses to accommodate for population household formation over the next 30 years and so that pressure is on to put in place the housing allotments that we have done. We have initiated Concordia. That is a department-led code amendment very important to the Chair, with some 10,000 allotments. We have had the Rural City of Murray Bridge, which I must congratulate on doing the right thing—a council-led code amendment, with some 1,000 allotments. That has kicked off interest in the Rural City of Murray Bridge. There is a lot of employment to go into that rural city. It will need allotments.

There is also Fisherman Bay, which is a council-led code amendment for some 230 allotments. The Goolwa North code amendment is privately led on land that has been identified in various 30-year plans over the years, with some 2,500 allotments.

So we are really pushing ahead with housing supply. We have announced two lots of projects at Bowden, two lots of projects at Prospect, one at Playford Alive, an additional greenfields housing project, all of which will go on if the Housing Affordability Fund passes the Senate. It is incredibly important to the finances of these projects.

They are based on having the HAF involved. If the HAF is involved, then those projects can go ahead, and more—not just those, but more. The passing of that finance bill in the Senate is incredibly important to those housing projects. We have had the turnaround in public housing, which is critically important; not only are we building more, some 550 more, but we are not selling any off—a really critical initiative by this government—incredibly important.

We have had the announcement of Noarlunga, an incredibly important transport-orientated development in the south, and we know the south is under pressure for land. We have initiated the Sellicks Beach code amendment, which we are going to be working with the council on. I do want to work with local councils to get this job done. It is really important that every community does some heavy lifting for housing in their areas.

It is really critically important because if we do it everywhere the pressure will not be on one community or one area or one hot zone for development. We will get balanced development across our city. We will all be doing a bit of heavy lifting on that aspect to make sure that we can really give people opportunities. Housing is like a pipeline, it is like a series of escalators and a series of travelators.

We want to get people into secure housing, even if it is just a secure rental, a secure affordable rental that will allow people to save a deposit. A deposit will allow people to get their foot in their first apartment, their first home, wherever that might be. That will be absolutely critical. Then they can accumulate capital and, if they can accumulate capital, they can then move to a second home, which might be a bit better in a bit better place with better facilities and on it goes. But you need every level of that supply pipeline to be moving.

Critically, we need good housing for young professionals in the city and we want to lift the population in the CBD, which is why we have worked with Adelaide City Council on Franklin Street, which is a really critical project. It is the first urban regeneration project that Renewal has done in the city—the first. It is quite incredible. Renewal SA, our urban regeneration organisation, our authority, which has done such a great job at Bowden, such a great job at Playford Alive, such a great job at Tonsley and on and on it goes, yet this is their first city project. That tells you something about some of the challenges we have.

Lifting the population of the city is just so incredibly important to this project. We need to make sure that the city population lifts. If the city population lifts, then again we will get the sort of density, appropriate density, well-planned density, and we get all the amenities in the community, we get all the amenities of the city and, most importantly, we will be able to house everyone. The importance of housing everybody and giving everybody a chance to fulfil what I have said before, that is, maslow's hierarchy of needs, is so critically important. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.


At 17:34 the house adjourned until Tuesday 29 August 2023 at 11:00.


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