Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-09-09 Daily Xml

Contents

Affordable Housing

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (15:05): Supplementary arising from the answer: minister, will the building and sale program result in a net increase in the South Australian Housing Authority's cash balance?

The Hon. J.M.A. Lensink: Sorry, can you repeat that?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Will the building and sale program result in a net increase or decrease in the SA Housing Authority's cash balance?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (15:05): As I think I have explained before, we are using the Treasurer's generous grant, if you like—it was either in the last budget or the budget before—in which the Treasurer provided some $800 million to the South Australian Housing Authority as working capital. At the end of the program that net will reduce to zero.

In terms of the properties themselves, they are not actually costing the authority anything, so there is no subsidy, if you like, which is going into building them. The authority is merely using its cash to make sure that these properties are available on the market.