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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-09-07 Daily Xml
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Public Housing

The Hon. T.T. NGO (15:17): My question is to the Minister for Human Services about housing. Exactly how many extra public housing properties will be delivered under the minister's two recent policy announcements about asset tests and open inspections for prospective tenants in public housing?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (15:17): I am not sure that I understand the honourable member's question, but I will attempt to answer what the benefits will be to people who are on our public housing waiting list. The honourable member I think refers to the reduction in the income and asset test as well. That was the other recent announcement.

In terms of public housing, we inherited a complete basket case. One only needs to examine the triennial report, which I tabled here in July 2018, which speaks to the unsustainability of the public housing system, which had really been left to rack and ruin under Labor. There has been a huge number of reforms that have taken place in our public housing system.

These two policies speak to transparency in the system and ensuring that we are delivering public housing to people who need it most. I am not sure whether Labor wants to try to defend that a single person who has assets of half a million dollars could still place themselves on the public housing waiting list. Quite frankly, I don't think that passes the community interest test. I think most people, as I was, were shocked to learn that people could have assets of that level and still register for public housing. So it was out of kilter with all of the other states around Australia.

The asset test still remains more generous than most jurisdictions around Australia and has come down to 10 per cent of what it was previously. We recognise, and I think a lot of people who reside in public housing and indeed people in the community recognise, that we should be providing public housing as efficiently as possible and to those people who need it most. That is what the policy settings are about. Labor just chose to leave it—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order, the Hon. Mr Hunter!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: They sold off 7½ thousand properties—

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Point of order.

The PRESIDENT: Point of order. The Minister will resume her seat.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: The honourable member of the opposition asked about the number of new properties and after minutes of talking about many other things that hasn't even been touched upon, sir

The PRESIDENT: Well, 2½ minutes, but the minister will continue.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: Under Labor there were 7½ thousand properties—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: One point five billion dollars—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The minister will resume her seat. The opposition complains that the minister is not answering the opposition's question but they won't listen to it. The minister will continue and be heard in silence.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: Labor chose to cannibalise public housing stock.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: All their pet projects.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The minister will continue.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: And it was completely unsustainable. We are—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Hunter!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: We are bringing the organisation—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Mr Hunter is risking the next question for the Labor Party.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: We are setting our public housing system on a far more sustainable footing, which means that we don't need to keep cannibalising the stock in the way that Labor did, where they just came up with one budget and I don't know where Tom Koutsantonis would put it—I think at the last election they were promising a—

The PRESIDENT: Do you mean the member for West Torrens?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: Sorry, Mr President. The member for West Torrens was promising a tram to Norwood at $300 million, so that presumably would have come out of the assets of the Housing Trust. I will not be lectured by the Labor Party. I will not be lectured about managing public housing when we have undertaken so many sensible reforms to get our housing—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —back into circulation and—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —get it on to a sustainable footing, which Labor could never do.

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