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.