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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-08-25 Daily Xml
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Homelessness

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (14:45): My question is to the Minister for Human Services regarding homelessness. Given that in every year of the Marshall Liberal government South Australia has had the worst rate of overcrowding in the whole of Australia for Indigenous community housing, why exactly is the minister not providing a single extra home on the APY lands for the next four years and then trying to shut down a street kitchen utilised by people from remote communities?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:45): I thank the honourable member for her question. I will remind her, as clearly the message isn't getting through to members of the Labor Party, that the matter of licensing of food services is a matter for the Adelaide City Council and is not something that—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The opposition will remain silent and listen to the answer.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: I am amazed that the Labor Party continues to misrepresent this issue when they have been reminded of the facts so many times.

In relation to remote housing, this government put our money on the table for the first time when the benevolent Treasurer seated alongside me committed some funding from the South Australian government towards remote housing. Of course, we have heard from Labor in the past about what a great program the previous remote housing program was, and it was, but it was I think some $290 million which was provided entirely from the Australian government which was able to go towards remote housing on the lands.

We have made an overall commitment of $37½ million, which matches the commonwealth's funding of $37½ million. In terms of the rebuilds that we have on the lands, the new homes will increase the capacity by I think it is some 25 per cent in each property. Of course, there are some communities there, such as Ernabella, which are limited by the number of sites; it is at full capacity. So there are other challenges in those areas.

We also know that overcrowding can be an issue in our metropolitan services, so in terms of the South Australian Housing Authority, we have been working to improve our cultural sensitivity towards Aboriginal customers through employing Aboriginal staff within the service so that we are ensuring that people, particularly in metropolitan Adelaide, are getting better services as well.

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