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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-06-26 Daily Xml
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Housing Trust Site Security

Mr COWDREY (Colton) (14:35): My question is again to the Minister for Housing. Has the minister met local residents in Gilberton following the alleged murder of a resident at Bentzen Court and, if not, why not? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr COWDREY: It was reported on 15 June that a former SA Housing Trust tenant allegedly stabbed another tenant and then was involved in a home invasion. There have been longstanding concerns about this particular Housing Trust site at Walkerville Terrace, with local Jan Beasley saying on FIVEaa radio, 'We are terrified.'

The Hon. N.D. CHAMPION (Taylor—Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Minister for Housing Infrastructure, Minister for Planning) (14:36): Firstly, the matters that the member refers to are still subject to investigation by South Australia Police, so I won't comment on those. I have, however, met with Jan Beasley. I met with her on Monday and we had a discussion about her experience. She has lived there for 17 years and there has been antisocial behaviour at that site over multiple governments of multiple persuasions.

It would be fair to say that Ms Beasley is at the end of her tether, and understandably so. They have been through a very traumatic incident and I feel for them greatly. I asked the trust to treat this with the utmost importance. They have put a security guard on the site 24/7. We have begun to engage with Ms Beasley about the interface between the trust property and their home. I have asked the trust to look at improving that interface in the best way that we can to ensure their peace of mind and security.

Of course, with issues like this antisocial behaviour—and I said this in estimates before—we need to look carefully at the allocation policy relating to walk-up flats, because for too long there have been issues around walk-up flats. If you get the allocation wrong and you get antisocial behaviour, it is hard to remediate, and often the behaviours accelerate as compliance activity is undertaken. We do have to look at walk-up flats. They are an issue of concern for the government, both in terms of the allocation policy towards them and in terms of the upgrades.

Having met with Jan Beasley and her husband, John, we have undertaken to meet with the council, to obviously meet with them further and to try to do all we can as a government to improve the situation that they have experienced over the last 17 years.

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