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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-04-30 Daily Xml
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Matters of Interest

Public Housing

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (15:22): I would like to speak about Labor's shameful record in public housing. During Labor's 16 years in office prior to 2018, they sold off seven and a half thousand public houses to the tune of $1.5 billion, including estates established by Sir Thomas Playford. Their view internally was that there were no votes in public housing. It was Labor's intention to reduce the public housing stock to 30,000 properties.

Labor Treasurer Jack Snelling was outed on these plans in a talkback radio interview with Mr Leon Byner, a veteran of radio station FIVEaa, and I quote:

The problem that we've got is we have a very high public housing stock compared to interstate and that's just an historical thing.

Mr Byner says:

Isn't that a good thing?

Mr Snelling replies:

No, it isn't.

He then goes on to talk about CRA. Mr Byner says:

We've got about 45,000 in round terms, what would you have that down to?

Mr Snelling replied:

I think if we were to be at the national average and I'm not saying that's where we'd go…it would bring us down to probably around 30,000.

Some six months later, Mr Snelling was back on radio reiterating Labor's plans. Mr Byner says in the interview:

Hang on, you told me you were going to reduce the amount of public housing from 45,000 to 30,000. You're still sticking to that?

Mr Snelling said:

Yeah, indeed.

Labor had baked in forward sales of public homes to prop up their budget, which sat at about 400 per annum when the Liberal Party came to office in 2018. We managed to reduce that to 150 per annum, and by 2022 that was zero. Labor needs to make amends for their past sins through a commitment to build an additional 400 houses during this term to make up for their crimes of the past.

Now that they are back in office, however, destruction of public housing continues on other fronts. Antisocial behaviour, which dropped under the Marshall government, has now increased so dramatically that security staff are needed to provide a safer environment for Housing SA staff.

When we were in government, we changed the policy. We reduced Labor's seven warnings to three, which saw Trust tenants who engaged in illegal activity taken to the tribunal for immediate eviction. We kept strikes active for 12 months instead of Labor's six months. This led to 146 evictions in the first 12 months of its operation and led to a reduction in antisocial behaviour because tenants understood the rules. We know that antisocial behaviour has increased by 25 per cent under the current government and it is a major contributor to housing damage.

In terms of maintenance and vacant houses, Labor has signed up to a maintenance contract which has left critical repairs undone for months on end. FOI data obtained by the Liberal Party has shown that the percentage of priority 1 repairs—that is, those that are immediately dangerous, such as an exposed live electrical wire—not being commenced within the required four hours has doubled. Similarly, the priority 2 repairs, which cause serious inconvenience—such as a blocked toilet—and should be started within 24 hours, blew out by 50 per cent.

Overdue vacancy maintenance works peaked in September 2023, but the number of vacant properties continued to rise and peaked in June 2024. We continue to receive complaints from Housing Trust tenants about long delays in maintenance work. The number of vacant properties has increased by 20 per cent since the commencement of Labor's contracts, and the most recent number that is publicly available for empty public housing property data sits at 1,927 under Minister Champion. As the state's largest landlord, with public funding of close to $1 billion, the maintenance contract needs to be independently examined by the Auditor-General.

The impact of this is harsh on tenants and it is harsh on tenants' neighbours. Public housing tenants should not have to wait for months and months to have critical repairs done. The impact is also felt by people who are experiencing homelessness. We released a 10-point plan in July 2022 to assist people in the rental market and those who are at risk of homelessness, and while it was a slow start for the new government we are pleased that they have adopted approximately two-thirds of our suggestions.

I am also pleased that the Labor Party finally accepted calls not just from the Liberal Party but from those who have experienced homelessness firsthand that public housing maintenance can be done after someone has moved into a home. If the house is safe to live in, jobs such as painting and landscaping can wait, rather than keeping people living in their cars or sleeping on their friends' couches. Labor's commitments to public housing pale into insignificance in comparison to the Liberal Party's record spend of $168 million in one year alone in our final year in office.

Time expired.

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