PUBLIC
HOUSING — WAITLIST
211. Dr D.J. HONEY to the Minister for Housing:
I refer to public housing stock —
Several government members interjected.
The SPEAKER: Order, please!
Dr D.J. HONEY: Is there some issue?
I refer to public housing stock, which fell during the last
term of this government, and the 32 000 applicants on the waitlist.
(1) Given the
minister's statement that he was waiting for the boom to finish before
commencing the $522 million special housing package, how will he balance demand
with decreasing stock?
(2) What is an acceptable wait time for a public house in our
rich state?
The SPEAKER: Minister, just before you answer, I ask
the Ministers for Finance, Industrial Relations and Health to not interject
while questions are being asked.
Mr J.N. CAREY
replied:
(1)–(2)
Member, respectfully, I am disappointed. I note that you make that claim
without actually quoting the source, which is totally misleading. It saddens me
that we are seeing this persistent approach by the opposition to mislead Western Australians. I will give another example.
The opposition previously released a media statement—there was
another one over the weekend—in which it talked about only a certain
number of properties available under $400, and in its previous media statement,
it referred to $450. What the opposition failed to mention is that it only
looks at houses rather than the total stock.
Dr D.J. Honey: I specifically said houses. You're
misleading Parliament.
Mr J.N. CAREY: Member, I showed you respect by
listening to you; perhaps you would like to do the same.
The opposition has persistently misquoted to provide the
worst dire picture. It selects only those houses under a certain value and then
puts them in a media statement, ignoring the other types of properties that are
available in the market. I do want to get to the waiting list. I am deeply
proud that this government has made the biggest investment in social housing in
our state's history. We did not rely on Kevin Rudd and a commonwealth
funding boost to deliver social housing. I note that the federal government has
completely disappeared from the remote communities space and other policy
areas, and we are making a huge investment. But I have also been very clear on
the record that we are undertaking unprecedented approaches to accelerating
delivery right now. It is absolutely misleading and dishonest for the
opposition to make the claim that we are not delivering social housing now.
That is false —
Dr D.J. Honey interjected.
The SPEAKER: Member for Cottesloe, if you would like
to be able to ask a supplementary question, I am going to urge you not to
continuously interject.
Mr J.N. CAREY: That is false. As the Minister for
Housing, despite the heated construction market, I am doing everything I can to
accelerate delivery. That includes a specific modular program for the regions,
moving to timber frames, an ambitious spot-purchasing program and the review of
Government Regional Officers' Housing to get vacant stock back into the
system. I have also reviewed procurement procedures and practices so that we
can move faster to deliver social housing.
There is substantial work being done right now. We have also set aside $500 million
to provide a pipeline of work once the
housing boom is over. I note that that has been welcomed by the Master Builders
Association and many other stakeholders in the construction industry, because
they want to see that pipeline of investment
as the boom recedes. We have taken the right approach: up-front investments through
a number of different strategies and then a social housing fund that is
there for a pipeline of work once the housing boom recedes.