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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-02-16 Daily Xml
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Public Housing Tenants

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (14:45): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Human Services regarding housing.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY: 10 News reported four weeks ago about the case of Karen and Sean who live in public housing. Sean has complex disability needs and needs home modifications that have now taken around 17 months. Channel 10 reported, and I quote:

Human services minister Michelle Lensink said in a statement that work is being done to get Karen and her family into the new home in the coming weeks.

When the opposition raised this two weeks ago, the minister said, 'It was a matter of being weeks away from being rectified, and I stand by that particular statement.' The minister keeps alleging that tens of millions of extra dollars are being spent on maintenance, but somehow critical disability needs are not being assessed. My questions to the minister are:

1. Are Karen and Sean now in their modified home?

2. If not, why not?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:46): I thank the honourable member for his question and for the opportunity to talk about the work that is going on through our bringing forward of the maintenance budget and indeed the stimulus that the government is spending.

Of course, the South Australian Housing Authority, when we took office, was on a completely unmanageable footing going forward. It was an organisation that was not able to manage its own assets, so we have been undertaking a strategic asset management report to determine which properties are in highest need.

The Hon. I.K. Hunter interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Hunter! Order! The minister will continue uninterrupted.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: It was a completely unsustainable organisation, so we have undertaken to do an asset management report so that we know the condition of every property going forward and that will inform our strategic asset management plan. Of course, when Labor was in office they regularly cut the maintenance budget, they reduced the cash reserves and they sold public housing.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! If the opposition want to listen to the answer, it would be helpful to the chamber. Otherwise, we will move on. If you don't want to listen to the answer, we will move on.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: So we have undertaken to put the organisation on a footing where we are much better managing all of the assets going forward. If I can talk about the annual maintenance program—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order, the Hon. Mr Hunter!

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! If the opposition don't want to listen to the answer, then we will move onto the next question.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —which the Labor Party regularly cut to fund other of their pet projects. What we have done is bring forward maintenance funding so that we can accelerate those properties that would benefit the most in terms of having upgrades and the like, so we have increased that budget by $30 million. We had a stimulus funding of $10 million, which went towards a range of projects in terms of assisting people, whether it is their kitchen upgrades or bathroom upgrades and other things that needed to be done. We have been accelerating that program across the portfolio.

In terms of some of our disability upgrades, there may be some that have been held up for a range of reasons, including with COVID. Retrofitting properties can be something that is more problematic than others and so we have been working assiduously through that program.

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Wortley has a supplementary.

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