SOCIAL
HOUSING — REGIONS
708. Ms L. DALTON to the Minister for Housing:
I refer to the McGowan Labor government's record
investment in social housing.
(1) Can the
minister update the house on this investment and outline how it is delivering
more social housing, particularly in our regions?
(2) Can the minister outline how this investment is also
supporting our community housing sector?
Mr J.N. CAREY
replied:
(1)–(2)
I am very pleased to report that our
government is continuing to roll out our record investment of $2.4 billion
in housing and homelessness programs over
the next four years. That includes, as I have said before in this
chamber, 3 300 social homes and critical maintenance and refurbishment.
We have already invested and made
announcements regarding community housing, but I am very pleased to say that we
have made another announcement for another round of funding for community
housing in Western Australia. We are providing nearly $40 million to community
housing organisations as part of the social housing economic recovery package
new builds program, and this will deliver around another 150 new social houses.
This is concentrated in the regions. We are looking at an investment of
community housing in Bunbury, Busselton, Donnybrook, Witchcliffe, Perenjori,
Shark Bay and Dalyellup. That is all new
community housing as part of 150 new social homes. This builds on the first
round so that, in total, we are
investing over $78 million to deliver 320 community houses. Why is the
community housing sector important? It is because we want it to grow so
that it can leverage funding from federal government and from super funds. We
can make our dollar go further.
One would think that our rollout
of and investment in social housing in regional Western Australia would be
welcomed, but I have to say it is disappointing to see that a local government
has expressed concerns about the rollout of social housing. I refer to an
article titled ''Cherry Gripe: Shire leader riled up as new seniors
complex filled with social housing''. The article quotes the former
Liberal opposition leader, now Shire of Manjimup president, as saying —
� while he welcomed increased
social housing in Manjimup, it was never the Shire's intention for
Cherry Glades.
Cherry
Glades is a DevelopmentWA estate that is actually being developed for seniors,
and our proposal is to put six social
houses into this lot as part of our modular program to provide housing for some
of our most vulnerable Western Australians. This is the point that I make,
but people always say this: ''We welcome social housing, but not here.
Not there. Not here, not there, not there.'' This is a classic response
by the Liberal Party. It is! Old habits die
hard for Liberals, because they say they support social housing, but just
where they want it, and that means not anywhere near them.
I am deeply proud that we are a state
Labor government that is committed to integrating social housing across all our communities. We understand that
that is the model that works, and we will continue to do that and
support the community housing sector.