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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-10-13 Daily Xml
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Public Housing

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (14:25): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Human Services regarding housing.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. Wade: Deep and broad questions on the pandemic, haven't they?

The PRESIDENT: Order! The minister is out of order.

The Hon. E.S. Bourke: We don't get answers, so why would we ask them?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: The minister's senior executives revealed last week—

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Ms Bourke is out of order. I struggle—

The Hon. S.G. Wade interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! I am struggling to hear the deputy leader because of members on the ministerial front bench and on the shadow ministerial front bench.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: The minister's senior executives revealed last week that an extra $50 million had been spent on public housing maintenance in the last financial year. Fifty million dollars could have repaired 1,000 to 2,000 existing empty public housing properties so they could be rented to homeless people. Instead, a recent freedom of information release showed 1,880 empty public housing homes. My questions to the minister are:

1. How is it possible to spend a record amount of money on maintenance that could have wiped out the list of empty homes but still end up with 1,880 empty homes?

2. How many house and land packages, for example, could have been purchased for $50 million?

3. How many homes could have been built on Housing Authority land with $50 million if the minister hadn't been selling off the land for so-called affordable housing projects?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:27): I am delighted to receive this question from the opposition, who spent 16 years presiding over taking maintenance money out of the Housing Trust budget, running a program called 1000 Homes in 1000 Days, in which they—

The Hon. J.E. Hanson interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Hanson, order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —actually resulted in a net loss—

The Hon. J.E. Hanson interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Mr Hanson is out of order.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —of properties from the system, $1.5 billion of sales of public housing properties, 7½ thousand properties that would be quite handy right now, putting in the forward estimates a target of some 500 properties a year to go to the budget in other areas, when this benevolent Treasurer sitting next to us here actually reversed the funding arrangement.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order, the Hon. Mr Hunter! Minister, resume your seat. The deputy leader has a point of order.

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: Point of order: the minister is mocking the Treasurer, which I think is unparliamentary and unfair.

The PRESIDENT: Order! There is no point of order.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: What else was there? Failing to do an asset test of Housing Trust properties since 2003, which—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! I think the opposition might like to listen to the answer.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Hanson is out of order.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: They failed to do an asset condition inspection report of the stock of the Housing Trust since 2003, which was—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The next question might not go to the Labor Party if you continue with this.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: So no condition asset report in their term since 2003. Under their watch the Labor Party had no idea what the condition of those properties was and probably didn't want to know, to be honest, and a range of other issues that this government is working to rectify. In the last financial year we actually spent $168 million on Housing Trust properties to bring them up to spec.

We have completed the asset condition inspection report—and I might add that one of the other points the Auditor-General made several years ago, under Labor's watch, was that there was an estimate of some half a billion dollars worth of backlog required. This was the condition of our Housing Trust assets, a significant number of properties, the largest landlord in the state.

We've been working assiduously to know what the conditions of those properties are. That has just recently been completed—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: What about putting people in a home?

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: As a result of that there was some $30 million, that was part of the evidence—actually, I'm not supposed to refer to that am I, Mr President; it is out of order to refer to committees of the parliament—

The PRESIDENT: You shouldn't.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: I can advise that I am advised there was some $30 million which, through the asset condition inspection report, has identified the works that need to be done. Some of those houses have been close to uninhabitable. Of course, there are a number of properties that are not just vacant but that are actually under offer, and we set aside a certain number for transfers, because if people are transferring from their property we try to make stock available for that process.

We are also working through the process—which the Labor Party has been highly critical of—where we had that accelerated process for the hard to rent properties. Some of the properties on that list are some of our most hard to rent properties in the system, and we are trying to make sure those properties are tenanted. Then there are a number that are off-line because tenants have left and they need to be repainted, and there are some that still need quite a bit of work to get them up to spec.

However, I won't be lectured by any member of the Labor Party on these issues—ever—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —because they did such a terrible job of managing this asset—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: They undertook no reforms—

An honourable member interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —to try to improve any of the tenancy system—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: We are fixing their mess.

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