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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-05-27 Daily Xml
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Aboriginal Housing Strategy

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI (14:47): My question is to the Minister for Human Services regarding housing. Can the minister outline to the council what the Marshall Liberal government will achieve through the Aboriginal Housing Strategy launched today?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:47): I thank the honourable member for her question and for her interest in this vitally important area. The Premier took the opportunity this morning at the Reconciliation SA breakfast, in front of some 1,870 people I think it was, to talk about the Aboriginal Housing Strategy, which is the culmination of a huge amount of work undertaken by those tasked within the Housing Authority and various advisory groups, as well as a large number of Aboriginal organisations, individuals and leaders.

It fulfils a commitment made in the lead-up to the election in 2018 and has been driven by members of the board of the South Australian Housing Authority, particularly Ms Shona Reid and her Aboriginal Advisory Committee members and, in more recent times, from the head of Aboriginal Housing, Ms Erin Woolford, who commenced in her role on 18 January this year. Ms Woolford has the lead in terms of the implementation of the strategy.

We believe that the strategy is the first standalone housing strategy to be launched in this state and will support more Aboriginal South Australians into home ownership and provide job opportunities in housing. One of the key commitments is providing a greater voice for Aboriginal people in determining their housing futures.

What we all know, what is well understood, is that Aboriginal people, in terms of all the metrics, are much worse off than non-Aboriginal people. They have high aspirations, particularly in the area of home ownership, and obviously have similar goals and aspirations as non-Aboriginal people. So it is about how we improve conditions so that Aboriginal people can have the right to determine their own futures.

There are several pillars in the strategy, the first being putting Aboriginal voices at the centre. That is consistent with Closing the Gap and a range of moves across a range of governments to ensure that Aboriginal people are front and centre in decision-making. It will be very much community-based, place-based decision-making.

There is service reform, which is about changing the way governments respond to things, particularly in consideration of our own public housing and community housing providers. To that end, the South Australian Housing Authority has been employing more Aboriginal people, including at senior levels, to ensure that we are redirecting our services to become more culturally appropriate and safe.

The third pillar involves economic participation. What we heard from communities was that people wanted to see the money being used in the development of housing go to local employment. Pillar four is to make more safe places to stay when and where people need them. Again, that involves services being better culturally informed. Number five is housing supply, to provide better access to housing, and pillar six is home ownership.

The development of this strategy has taken some time. It has been a great journey that has really brought a lot of people to a place where they appreciate that the government is fair dinkum in terms of making sure we are genuinely listening to Aboriginal voices. There were some 70 Aboriginal councils, corporations and community leaders that participated in the consultation, so it has been a very deep dive into what people need.

We look forward to improving housing for Aboriginal people going forward, particularly given it is such a significant part of everybody's lives.

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