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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 208 asked in the Legislative Assembly on 5 April 2022 by Mr R.S. Love

Parliament: 41 Session: 1

GOVERNMENT REGIONAL OFFICERS' HOUSING

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

I note that 723 Government Regional Officers' Housing properties were empty in November 2021—one in seven were lying vacant amid a housing crisis. Why is this acceptable to this government, and what is the minister doing to streamline Government Regional Officers' Housing to ensure that every available property is being used?

Mr J.N. CAREY replied:

I thank the member for his question.

Our government invests around $200 million across the state in Government Regional Officers' Housing, and that is both spot purchasing, new builds and refurbishing properties to bring them back online. One of the issues that we face—I have been on the public record about this already—is that we have significant ageing stock. I am looking at every opportunity to bring that stock back online. There are two things. First, in the most recent budget, we announced $12.8 million to assess around 10 000 ageing properties, so that we can plan how to bring them back or extend their life for future housing. The second thing I am doing is looking at vacant GROH properties—those that are not required. The first false premise in the Deputy Leader of the Opposition's question is the lack of recognition that vacant housing has been allocated to agencies to be filled. The idea that all those houses are simply sitting idle and are not going to be used is false. Anyone who understands the GROH management system realises that we allocate housing to different agencies that they hold for recruitment. As the Minister for Housing, I have already requested a review of existing GROH stock and the stock that is surplus to needs will be brought back either for social housing or local governments. An example is Derby where there was surplus GROH stock. We identified that out of 15 homes, many of them could be used for the local government and the remainder for social housing. It is already underway. My agency and I are going through this. I have outlined this previously in this Parliament.