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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-02-18 Daily Xml
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Housing Authority

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (14:31): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Human Services regarding public housing budget cuts.

Leave granted.

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: Both of the government's budgets since the election slashed the budget for the SA Housing Authority and increased public housing rents. Over the forward estimates to 2023, budget cuts total more than $79.5 million, and budget papers indicate that more than 200 staff will have to go.

In December last year the government released a new 10-year housing strategy that runs from now until 2030. Unless the current budget cuts are reversed the Liberals will slash up to a quarter of a billion dollars from the SA Housing Authority by 2030. On top of budget cuts and staff cuts, the most recent annual report shows the $186 million in property sales in one year. Luckily, however, the minister has found the money to double the pay of the chair of the board and hire an entire new level of management to oversee a smaller budget, fewer homes and fewer staff.

The last time the Liberals were in government and Rob Lucas was treasurer, we saw record reductions in public housing, from 63,000—

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: Point of order, Mr President: this explanation is laden with opinion, and I think it's—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: It's laden with facts.

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: Opinion. And I draw that to your attention.

The PRESIDENT: Thank you, the Hon. Mr Dawkins. The Hon. Deputy Leader of the Opposition, you sought leave to make a brief explanation. It has been a reasonably lengthy one so far. Are we getting to a question?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: Yes, we are almost there.

The PRESIDENT: Excellent. Please ask your question.

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: So we saw record reductions in public housing last time the Hon. Rob Lucas was treasurer, from 63,000 to less than 50,000 in just eight years. In one year alone, almost 3,000 public housing properties disappeared. Since minister Lensink took over the portfolio, documents that show the Liberals' appalling record have been stripped from the agency's website. My questions to the minister are:

1. Can the minister explain how the commitments in the 10-year strategy can be delivered when the forward estimates, that go for four years, already include massive budget cuts?

2. Why is the minister running a protection racket for the Treasurer by hiding documents that show how he gutted public housing when he was last in government?

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Deputy Leader of the Opposition, there was far too much opinion in that question. I will let the minister answer it, but please, you need to keep it a lot tighter than that in the future. Minister.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:34): Thank you, Mr President. I am not sure whether to thank the honourable member for that question, which I think was factually incorrect.

The Hon. C.M. Scriven: It gives you a bit more time to think about your answer, so you might as well.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: I listened to the honourable member in silence. I would appreciate if I can not be constantly interrupted by members of the Labor Party. The honourable member clearly doesn't understand that the budget arrangements changed in the last budget, in that the Housing Trust—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —has been provided with an up-front grant, so rather than as in the previous arrangements when they received a certain amount—

The Hon. R.P. Wortley interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Wortley!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —for the running of the Housing Trust, it is being done over three years' worth of its budget in one budget, which means that it has a large amount of cash sitting on its balance sheet that it is able to use. This is in stark contrast to the way that the Labor Party ran the South Australian housing assets, in that it was always pinching money out of the Housing Trust budget by selling properties in the order of some 600 per year.

The number of properties has fallen. I think, from memory, that $1 billion worth of funding came out of the Housing Trust over a 10-year period, 7,500 properties. The Liberal government is the government that is actually restoring some dignity for Housing Trust tenants, in that we have increased the maintenance budget.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Leader of the Opposition, order! Minister.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: We have a renewal program that is focused on improving the assets so that people have better properties to live in. The Labor Party—I only need to go back to the triennial review for anybody who cares about that particular portfolio—should weep, because there are three things the Labor Party did: they cut the maintenance program, they ran down the cash reserves and they sold assets. It is all there in black and white in the report that I tabled in July 2018.

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