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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 650 asked in the Legislative Assembly on 21 October 2021 by Mr R.S. Love

Parliament: 41 Session: 1

CORONAVIRUS — SOCIAL HOUSING ECONOMIC RECOVERY PACKAGE

650. Mr R.S. LOVE to the Minister for Housing:

I refer to the Auditor General's sixth report, Roll-out of state COVID-19 stimulus initiatives: July 2020–March 2021, which was tabled yesterday.

(1) How does the minister respond to the fact that the four worst-performing COVID-19 stimulus initiatives, as investigated by the Auditor General in this report, all fall within his portfolio?

(2) Does the fact that less than $6.5 million—a mere two per cent—of the announced $328 million for these four initiatives has been spent show that beyond releasing the odd media release, the minister is out of his depth and totally failing some of the state's most vulnerable people?

Mr J.N. CAREY replied:

(1)–(2) It does not surprise me that the member for Moore does personal slurs; it is the only thing he is able to do because he does not have any intellectual policy grunt on these matters.

Mr R.S. Love interjected.

The SPEAKER: Order, please!

Mr J.N. CAREY: He goes straight to the personal slur. It does him no good.

I want to be very clear about the Auditor General's report. It is actually a dated report, from March this year, so let us be very clear on that. I am on the public record as saying that we have a booming housing economy, and that is a great thing. We have had 27 000 building approvals and 4 000 regional approvals. We are in extraordinary times, and this is actually good for all home owners who are entering the market. As the new Minister for Housing, since March, I have been focused on driving a reform program that is about accelerating the delivery of social housing. In fact, only this week I used the example of six timber homes that were originally going to take 12 months to deliver but are being delivered in five months. We are gaining real traction, given the challenges.

I respectfully disagree with the Auditor General when she suggested that this was an instant sugar hit. It was very clear that this was part of a COVID recovery program over a period of time—we actually refer to it as a pipeline of works. We are getting that work out. I want to put this on the public record: as at 30 September, social housing economic recovery package works totalling $68.5 million had been awarded, supporting an estimated 365 jobs and $141.8 million in economic activity. There are 250 new social housing builds—150 for public housing and 100 for community housing. Of the 150 public housing builds, 62 have been awarded to builders, valued at $18.1 million. There have been 398 refurbishments awarded to contractors, valued at $30 million. Of those, 103 refurbishments have been completed. Maintenance works have also been awarded as part of the SHERP program for 4 134 regional properties, valued at $20.5 million. We also have out now $92.8 million in SHERP grants to be delivered to the community housing sector. That was a report of a particular time. It is dated. We clearly are pumping out funding through a range of programs. More than 600 homes are currently under construction. As the new Minister for Housing, recognising the heated construction market, I have been driving a very clear reform program to accelerate the delivery of social housing through modular and timber homes, and so forth. We are making significant gains.