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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 227 asked in the Legislative Assembly on 16 June 2021 by Dr D.J. Honey

Parliament: 41 Session: 1

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.