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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-09-13 Daily Xml
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Australian Defence Force in South Australia

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (14:12): My question is to the Minister for Defence and Space Industries. Has the Deputy Premier spoken with the federal defence minister in relation to the presence of the Australian Defence Force in South Australia and, if not, why not? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr PATTERSON: It was reported last week that the federal government intends to transfer thousands of soldiers currently based in Adelaide to Darwin and Townsville, with no plan in place to replace their jobs or to make their homes available for South Australians to ease our housing shortage.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:12): I am more than happy to answer the question. The Deputy Premier and I have naturally spoken about this issue and agree that, given some of the other issues that I have been raising with the Deputy Prime Minister consistent with the Leader of the Opposition's earlier question, I should raise this issue with him, given the media speculation that has been out there. We are aware of the speculation.

At this stage, I am advised that it is speculation. No final decision has been made in respect of the movements of various Army personnel around the country. Of course, the DSR made a number of recommendations, including around the Army; it obviously wasn't exclusively pertaining to the Navy. We know that Edinburgh has seen a massive build-up in terms of the presence of 7RAR. The commonwealth has expended a huge sum of money at Edinburgh to accommodate that and surrounds.

The 7RAR was moved from Darwin to Adelaide in 2013, I think from memory. That brought with it a whole range of benefits, including approximately 1,000 Army personnel and all the ancillary economic effort that comes with it, so we would be alarmed at the proposition of that being moved. We haven't received any formal advice on that. I have been told that a final decision hasn't been made. We would expect to be notified if and when that does occur, but it is a situation that we are actively monitoring because it does matter.

The other element of the shadow minister's question that I think is interesting and worthy of contemplation from the state government's perspective is the issue of the housing. We don't want to see 7RAR move. Let's be clear about that. We have made that known to the commonwealth. But in the event that it were to occur—we are not planning on it occurring, but in the event that it were to occur—I think there is a very serious question that has to be raised about what happens to that housing.

There is a housing shortage across the state at the moment, as there is around the country, and any opportunity that presents itself to address it, we are up for it. I have made that very clear in everything that we have done, particularly in last year's state budget and other things we continue to do. This is a serious priority of the government, trying to address the housing shortage.

We have some big challenges coming our way in terms of workforce. The Leader of the Opposition asked about the frigates. I mentioned the 2,000 workers. There is the Future Submarine program as well. We are going to need a lot of people in South Australia over and above what we have currently to build the homes that we need to have built.

Then there is the north-south project, then there is the Women's and Children's Hospital project, then there is our hydrogen project. We need more workers, more workers in this state, not less—let alone the potential of Northern Water and Olympic Dam.

We need more workers, not less. We need more housing for those workers, and we have a shortage at the moment, so there is a big challenge on our hands in this regard. We are in the market for any solution we can get our hands on in respect of housing, which is why the Treasurer has been working so closely with the Minister for Planning along with the minister responsible for the Housing Trust. We are open-minded to that, and that is something that we will be turning our minds to. That said, our preference, of course, would be not to see that challenge present itself through the retention of 7RAR themselves.

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