CORONAVIRUS — HOMELESSNESS
227. Dr D.J. HONEY to the Minister for Housing:
As always, I appreciate your
compassion and the kindness, Madam Speaker!
The SPEAKER: Saved by the
Speaker, yes!
Dr D.J. HONEY: I refer to
correspondence sent to the Premier and the member for Bunbury dated 3 May
regarding a family in Bunbury, which reported that the Salvation Army
recommended that the family, who had been forced out of their accommodation,
live in a tent in a national park, and recent reports that the Salvation Army
has paid 342 car registrations so that homeless families can sleep in their
vehicles.
(1) Is the minister aware of these
situations?
(2) Is this
acceptable to the Minister for Housing, as the responsible minister, given that
his government has an estimated surplus of $5 billion?
Mr J.N.
CAREY replied:
(1)–(2) I
want to thank the member for his question. There is no doubt that we have
incredible demand for housing in Western Australia, and there is one clear
reason for this; that is, due to the COVID pandemic we have seen a large number
of people return to Western Australia, in part because of our management. We
have created a safe haven for the world. People want to return here. We have an
incredible, strong economy. We have the
lowest unemployment rate in the nation. That has resulted in huge demand for
housing supply. I want to put this on the record: we have already put in
a range of measures to tackle this. The statistics do not lie: there were 24 000 building approvals in the last 12 months.
That is thanks to our building bonus that is helping thousands of Western
Australians achieve their dream of a new home. We relaxed Keystart to enable more first home buyers to buy their
first home. We are acutely aware that there are pressures. That is why
we brought in the residential relief rebate scheme, a $30 million program to
provide assistance to those most vulnerable. We are investing nearly $1 billion
in a range of programs, such as homelessness initiatives,
social housing and public housing. These are real and genuine investments. As
the Minister for Housing, I am acutely aware of some of the challenges
that people face, and I am looking at and reviewing all our current programs to
see how we can better accelerate and deliver on those major commitments.