HANSARD
SITTING CALENDAR
SEARCH
LIVE BROADCAST
Hansard Dynamic Subject Index
Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-11-09 Daily Xml
Contents
Pdf Xml

AFFORDABLE HOUSING

The Hon. M. PARNELL (15:53): Today I want to talk about affordable housing in South Australia. On Monday, I was pleased to attend the launch of a new campaign under the banner of Australians for Affordable Housing, hosted by SACOSS. Australians for Affordable Housing is a coalition of 60 national and state housing, welfare and community sector organisations that has come together to highlight the problems of housing affordability in Australia. The campaign has a website—www.housingstressed.org.au—and I urge all members to pay the site a visit and get some perspective on the nature and extent of the problem, including here in South Australia.

Important new research released by Australians for Affordable Housing shows where housing stress is hitting Adelaide and regional SA the hardest. The research shows the local government areas where both renters and home purchasers struggle with high housing costs. The problem of housing stress is significant and it is impacting renters much more than those with mortgages. For example, almost half of all people renting privately in Playford are paying more than 30 per cent of their income in rent, while over 20 per cent are in housing stress with a mortgage. These are amongst the worst figures nationally and they show how the lack of rental housing is causing significant financial pressures on South Australian families.

At the top of the table there are areas that we know are struggling, like Playford, Port Adelaide Enfield and Salisbury, but many households in central Adelaide, too, are facing housing costs that eat up far too much of their weekly pay and eat into other essentials of life. In regional South Australia, Alexandrina, Yankalilla, Murray Bridge and Port Lincoln are the regional areas under the highest levels of housing stress, with around 16 per cent of households on low income and paying high housing costs. These figures are derived from modelled census data, and I seek leave to incorporate into Hansard two statistical tables showing housing stress levels across local government areas in metropolitan and regional South Australia.

Leave granted.

Housing stress-Australians for Affordable Housing local council league table*

Housing Stress Mortgage Stress Private Rent Stress
LGA Name % Number % Number % Number
Playford (C) 20 6100 22.5 2743 41.2 2323
Adelaide (C) 19.7 2084 11.6 228 29.7 1549
Port Adelaide Enfield (C) 17 8280 18.7 2813 36.2 3750
Salisbury (C) 17 8905 20.9 4469 34.7 3261
Gawler (T) 15.9 1396 16.6 495 38.5 711
Onkaparinga (C) 15.5 10081 19.1 4935 37.7 3929
West Torrens (C) 15.4 3925 14.7 972 33.3 2405
Norwood Payneham St Peters (C) 14 2391 10.7 453 31 1599
Prospect (C) 13.9 1231 10.8 303 32.2 787
Charles Sturt (C) 13.6 6175 16.3 2010 32.9 2897
Marion (C) 13.4 4924 14.6 1831 33.3 2081
Campbelltown (C) 13.2 2643 13.8 762 37.1 1523
Holdfast Bay (C) 12.9 2226 12 522 30.9 1509
Unley (C) 12.7 2135 10.6 528 30.6 1401
Tea Tree Gully (C) 11.6 4580 14.9 2370 31.5 1704
Mitcham (C) 10.5 2845 11.8 1077 33.2 1526
Adelaide Hills (DC) 10.2 1565 14.2 915 32.1 534
Walkerville (M) 9.6 308 9.8 74 27.9 166
Burnside (C) 9.5 1752 11.2 579 30.1 1032


*This league table provides for comparison of small local areas and is based on modelled census numbers. These are not directly comparable with recently published housing stress modelling on ABS Survey of Income and Housing data.

Housing stress-Australians for Affordable Housing local council league table*

Housing Stress Mortgage Stress Private Rent Stress
LGA Name % Number % Number % Number
Alexandrina (DC) 16.2 1657 23.4 750 42.2 769
Yankalilla (DC) 16.2 336 29.5 162 45.4 141
Murray Bridge (RC) 16.1 1327 22.1 513 35.3 588
Port Lincoln (C) 15.8 970 18.9 338 31.2 440
Mallala (DC) 15.6 514 22.6 375 35.5 111
Coober Pedy (DC) 15.5 150 29.4 37 28.6 71
Renmark Paringa (DC) 15.5 626 21.4 256 33.6 304
Copper Coast (DC) 15.3 886 27.2 385 36.3 379
Berri and Barmera (DC) 15 697 21.3 323 29.7 270
Mount Barker (DC) 15 1789 17.4 891 35.6 724
Mount Gambier (C) 14.8 1605 17.4 619 31.5 697
Peterborough (DC) 14.7 138 28.8 76 31.3 36
Mid Murray (DC) 14.6 548 28.1 299 31.2 158
Port Pirie City and Dists (M) 14.6 1117 22.4 501 35.9 373
Victor Harbor (C) 14.5 905 26.5 360 42.7 472
Norwood Payneham St Peters (C) 14 2391 10.7 453 31 1599
Light (RegC) 13.8 714 19.3 488 32.8 180
Wakefield (DC) 13.7 387 24 201 32.2 145
Campbelltown (C) 13.2 2643 13.8 762 37.1 1523
Goyder (DC) 13.2 240 26.9 132 28 70
The Coorong (DC) 13.1 324 28.5 164 25.9 112
Kingston (DC) 13 145 27 58 34 73
Loxton Waikerie (DC) 13 643 21.4 294 29.2 259
Kangaroo Island (DC) 12.9 255 26 143 26.2 83
Tumby Bay (DC) 12.7 150 27.3 65 33.7 62
Port Augusta (C) 12.6 779 15.6 266 26.3 288
Whyalla (C) 12.6 1263 14.3 453 26.5 408
Barunga West (DC) 12.5 147 27.8 55 37.4 68
Streaky Bay (DC) 12.3 116 26 46 27.8 42
Wattle Range (DC) 12.2 631 19.6 326 28.6 215
Flinders Ranges (DC) 12 97 26.6 59 23.1 15
Barossa (DC) 11.9 1109 16 557 30.4 441
Yorke Peninsula (DC) 11.8 617 30.2 292 32.4 225
Clare and Gilbert Valleys (DC) 11.7 445 19.9 199 25.4 174
Lower Eyre Peninsula (DC) 11.5 227 20.8 130 28.3 75
Northern Areas (DC) 11.5 243 23.5 127 28.4 73
Ceduna (DC) 11.4 173 18.7 67 23.9 76
Franklin Harbour (DC) 11 63 25.4 29 23.2 23
Robe (DC) 11 71 27.7 46 17 18
Tatiara (DC) 11 318 20.3 189 20.3 95
Naracoorte and Lucindale (DC) 10.8 379 16.2 171 23.6 144
Grant (DC) 10.7 350 16.9 234 26.1 83
Mount Remarkable (DC) 10.5 127 25.2 69 30.1 37
Karoonda East Murray (DC) 10.1 47 28 28 25 12
Southern Mallee (DC) 9.2 87 23.2 48 16.9 23
Orroroo/Carrieton (DC) 8.6 34 26.1 18 24.2 8
Wudinna (DC) 8.6 42 22.1 23 16.9 10
Elliston (DC) 7.5 34 11.9 12 22.8 13
Kimba (DC) 5.6 26 8.2 7 19.2 10
Roxby Downs (M) 4.6 82 4.3 26 5.6 53
Anangu Pitjantjatjara (AC) Data unavailable
Cleve (DC) Data unavailable
Maralinga Tjarutja (AC) Data unavailable


*This league table provides for comparison of small local areas and is based on modelled census numbers. These are not directly comparable with recently published housing stress modelling on ABS Survey of Income and Housing data.

The Hon. M. PARNELL: Housing markets are complex and interlinked and we need policy solutions that are similarly sophisticated and integrated. We need to address the problems that inflate house prices for first home buyers and make rental housing unaffordable. Governments at all levels influence the housing market through tax incentives, first home owner grants, affordable housing programs, planning controls and rent assistance; yet there is no overarching plan to drive these interventions and the result is that they are not coordinated, often contradictory and ultimately ineffective.

The Australians for Affordable Housing campaign believes that the goal of government housing policy should be to ensure that all Australian households can access affordable housing and that government action needs to be coordinated to deliver that goal.

Top of the list of policy changes is investment in more low-cost rental housing. We also need more opportunities for low-income households to get into home ownership and better financial assistance for low-income renters. We also need to change the housing investment tax arrangements that drive up house prices. I am hoping that the current Environment, Resources and Development Committee inquiry into medium-density housing will come up with some concrete suggestions in relation to state charges and taxes, including stamp duty and land tax. I note that Ken Henry, in his overarching review of taxation, also recommended that the states look at these taxes.

Another Legislative Council select committee that will be able to deal with this is the committee looking into residential and industrial development at Port Adelaide and the wider Lefevre Peninsula. The time is right and the location is right, given the axing of the Newport Quays development recently. When the government goes back to the drawing board, hopefully with the community on side, it needs to look at redressing the worrying housing affordability statistics at the port, with 17 per cent of households under housing stress and 36 per cent of renters in the private rental market under stress.

What we do not want are simplistic solutions that deliver more urban sprawl and create future ghettos of disadvantage. Releasing more land at the fringe is not the answer. There is a real worry that young families in particular will be attracted out to the fringe by cheap house and land packages and then be marooned by high petrol prices once the impacts of peak oil kick in. The cost of housing and the cost and availability of transport need to be looked at together. I commend Australians for Affordable Housing for kicking off this campaign and I urge all members to get on board.

PARLIAMENTARY BUSINESS
MEMBERS
GET INVOLVED
ABOUT PARLIAMENT
VISIT
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY
CONTACT