LOUISE MILLER‑FROST:
Welcome here. It's fantastic to have my good friend Julie Collins, Minister for Housing, Homelessness and Small Business here on Kaurna Yerta land for the announcement of the Kaurna elders village. And also we have with us Minister Nat Cook, our State Minister. Erin Thompson, Member for Devonport. Sarah Andrews, who is the Member for Gibson. And Mizi, who is a board member from the Kaurna Yerta Corporation. My long background in the housing and homelessness sector through Catherine House and through Vinnies – this is an issue that I'm particularly passionate about. We know that Aboriginal people make up approximately 3 per cent of the population, but they represent anywhere between 20 and 30 per cent of the homelessness sector, depending on where you are. And they have specific needs that we haven't been meeting. So this is an important project. We've been working on this for an awfully long time, and I'm sure Mizi in particular has been working on it for I think a couple of decades. So this has been an awfully long time coming. It's a really important piece of land here. It's part of Warriparinga. It's part of the Tjibruke dreaming story. We have the Living Kaurna Cultural Centre just over the creek there. So it's a really important day, and I'm so thrilled to be here. I’m handing over to Julie Collins.
JULIE COLLINS:
Thanks, Louise. And it's terrific to be here with Louise and obviously with the State Minister Nat Cook, but importantly also with Mizi and indeed members of the Kaurna community here today. What we're talking about today is an important partnership. It’s a partnership between two tiers of government and the community. This has been community driven, and community led. And we've been able to invest in this proposal here. We're talking about 40 homes – 40 new homes for First Nations Elders, here in their community that is culturally appropriate. This has come from the $575 million that we unlocked not long after we came to government. This means that they can get on and they can get this done. We're expecting a sod turning in just a few months. We want to see, and I know Minister Cook wants to see people in their homes as quickly as we can get them in their homes. This $3 million investment from the federal government is part of the funding. The state government is contributing, and of course, the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation is also making a significant contribution.
But importantly, it shows that partnerships do work. We're currently out to tender through the Housing Australia Future Fund, and indeed the National Housing Accord from Housing Australia. What we want to see from that tender process is more partnerships with different tiers of government, but importantly, with community organisations so that we can get more homes on the ground more quickly, right across the country. And as I keep saying, they need to be the right homes in the right places, and that's what we're seeing here today. We do need to get on with it. And that is why – this is some of the homes that will certainly soon be underway, but we already have thousands of homes underway today because of decisions that our government has taken. That includes our $2 billion Social Housing Accelerator. Here in South Australia, we've provided the money – it’s already been given to the state government. $135 million. We understand that that will contribute towards 230 new homes for South Australians, here in South Australia. That is on top of our additional $1 billion that we're putting into the National Housing Infrastructure Facility. It is on top of the Housing Australia Future Fund. It is on top of the National Housing Accord. We're making investments right across the spectrum. We also, of course, have put more money into homelessness services through the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement. And indeed, we are supporting more Australians into home ownership through the changes we made to the Home Guarantee Scheme, and we've introduced our shared equity scheme – Help to Buy. Right across the housing spectrum, we want to make sure that more Australians – more South Australians – have a safe and affordable place to call home. I’ll now hand over to the State Minister.
NAT COOK:
Well, it's so great to be here. This journey here to what will be named Purrkanaitya, a place for all elders, is one that's taken us a substantial amount of time. As the Assistant Minister for Housing some seven years ago, I stood in a room talking about a partnership with the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation, where a parcel of land was available to be used for an elder village. Really a groundbreaking decision that has been made with the generosity of that corporation, and the determination through their value set, their ethos and their philosophy, that is now leading to a partnership with the Aboriginal Housing Corporation, with state government, federal government and the Kaurna community through KYAC and its members. To foresee a need back then that now is vital for Aboriginal elders. But it isn't only going to help the 40 or so Aboriginal Elders that will move into a place of inclusiveness and accessibility. It will help the community around it to access those larger homes that will be freed up as older people move here. The building of community for generations of Aboriginal people who are in dire need of appropriate and built for purpose housing is going to be unlocked through this and the partnership that we have now with the federal government.
So for the first time in a generation, we have got governments who are singing from the same songbook and are going to make sure that money is flowing in order to be able to break ground and open doors, unlock opportunities for all generations of South Australians, but importantly for Aboriginal people who are over represented on almost every measure that is negative for that community. We need to do better in closing the gap. We need to stop talking about it and start doing, and that's why we reached out through this opportunity with the federal government to actually get this project really up and running that has been talked about for so, so long. With the federal government, you will see over this period of five or so years, nearly half a billion dollars extra injected into South Australian housing. That will create thousands of opportunities for our community. This is a really important start for a tailored opportunity – a targeted, inclusive and culturally sensitive opportunity for Aboriginal people that will have flow on effects for all of South Australia. So I can't stress how important this is to be here on what will be known as Purrkanaitya, a place for all elders. I think Mizi is just going to say a few words on behalf of Kaurna Yerta.
MIZI NAM:
This has been, as everybody has been saying, in the pipeline for a long time. And as I said over at the last podium, housing crisis for our families and our elders are our priority. They're the ones that we take care of, and it's nice to see that they'll be taken care of in the mainstream as well. Given culturally appropriate, comfortable place to live without having to have three other generations living with them. I'd like this to be a start of the bigger picture, like Nat has said. You know, there's lots of areas out there and it's not only our elders – it's our children, it’s our families, and the wider community really fighting this crisis at the moment. So this is really exciting. And as a Kaurna senior person, knowing that our Kaurna elders are going to be taken care of in a culturally appropriate way. This won't be like a nursing home. These people will still have independence. So at least they are able to live comfortably. So yes, looking forward to this and many more projects in the future. Thank you.
JOURNALIST:
This project’s been a number of years in the making, over 10 years I've heard. Why has it taken so long to get to this point?
NAM:
Well, there's lots of things. Our boards change all the time. governments change all the time. So there's lots of things, but you know, lots of negotiations, people in power change all the time. So sometimes the information doesn't go ahead, and things don't get followed up. So, you know, it's just timely that the right people and the right supports are in to make this actually happen.
JOURNALIST:
When you talk about the housing crisis, how’s that specifically impacting Aboriginal elders in South Australia?
NAM:
As I said just a time ago, you know, we have sometimes three, four generations living in one home. And it's usually the elders that are the tenants of the property. And with this, we are getting lots of threats of terminations of tenancy because of overcrowding. There's lots of different psychosocial issues that are attached to housing. If we don't have proper housing, we can't tackle any of the other social issues that our families are facing. You know, you can deal with a bit of something else that's going on, but without a stable, comfortable place to live, they can’t achieve what needs to be done. So it's very important for all areas. We have young families that, there is no housing stock. So you know, they're going through over a hundred applications every time that their lease is up. You know, I have a child living in a two bedroom with three children that’s had to reluctantly overturn the lease, because they just can't get another place. So public housing is just unreachable for communities. So it's very vital that for our health and wellbeing and survival that we have some proper, proper suitable accommodation. Some of the stock that we currently have is all falling apart. You know, and then they get sold off as ‘renovators delights’. So we need to get in and maintain the housing stock that we'd have too. We have, sort of have a lot of with the closing the gap stuff, we have a lot of people that have a terminal illness. There's a lot of hereditary illnesses within our communities, and they’re living on somebody's couch or spare room, mattress on the floor. There's so many of our young families with young children living in motel accommodation at the moment, where they don't even have a stove about to cook for their families. And this is what's the emergency accommodation that our families are offered. And it's – in this day and age, we should be able to offer our families just a little bit more.
JOURNALIST:
Sounds like a lot more, you’re saying a lot more should be done.
NAM:
Absolutely. Absolutely. It's nice to see this for our elders, because as I said, they are our priority. We have very few of them. We senior people. This might be good for me one day. In between leases, my children and grandchildren are moving back to me. So maybe I can free up my house for my family. It’s a start, it’s a start.
JOURNALIST:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I understand there's been previous proposals for housing developments here that have been rejected. Why is this seen as a better option for the use of the land?
NAM:
Kaurna Yerta, Kaurna elders. I’ll leave it at that.
COOK:
I think it's a really good question. If you're okay, I'll answer your question. I think what's been articulated is an intergenerational challenge that needs to be faced head on. With the federal government we're unlocking not just hundreds of homes, but thousands of homes for the community. And by ensuring and enshrining the use of traditional Kaurna land in a place that is so significantly, culturally connected to Kaurna people, we will ensure the longevity and the success of this as a housing outcome for older Kaurna people. Which will in turn, out of those 40 opportunities, unlock homes for dozens more Aboriginal people within the South Australian Housing Authority’s portfolio. So, as we are able to move people to here, to a beautiful place of accessibility and inclusion, we will then ensure that those homes that people move from and those other overcrowded situations that people move from are able to be invested in for the success of families for generations to come. It's time that all governments worked together to ensure that we start setting the standard for the future for generations of Aboriginal and other community members, so that they also have an understanding of the challenges of each other, and how success is not an individual situation for one culture or one group. It cannot be that one group is more successful than the other. We have to think about it as an interconnected community and invest for generations to come. This draws a line in the sand, and it says, we will do better for this particular group of people. But the flow on effect is absolutely what we are here to ensure today, and that is a better conversation for decades and centuries to come for the people who have lived on this land for 65,000 years or more.
JOURNALIST:
What's the selection criteria to move residents in here? Obviously, there are more than 40 that would be available to move here, but only 40 homes. So can you break that down?
COOK:
So the entirety of this project has been Aboriginal led, and I think that's really important. So Aboriginal people will be at the heart of the decision‑making project process around that criteria. But the whole development and the journey itself has been set up on the premise that this is a place for elders. This is a place where elders will move here from either a situation of a larger home that potentially has overcrowding problems, and also from insecure or unstable accommodation which would be defined as homeless at this point. Older people are couch surfing with their families to get shelter from weather and elements, and to achieve nutrition and comfort. That's not acceptable either. So the criteria for moving here will be over 50, considered elder in terms of Aboriginal communities, and those places and homes – if homes are freed up in their entirety from that tenancy, particularly from our South Australian Housing Authority stock, we will then turn that property over to Aboriginal people who are category one on the list for housing. They are the people who are in a crisis and absolutely in need of housing. So I can't stress enough, we need this to happen as fast as it can. It has taken a long time. But I think part of what the benefit of taking such a long time is that there have been a range of arguments and problem‑solving processes that have been well predicated and well articulated by Aboriginal cultural leaders. And so we've come to a point now where there is pretty much an answer for every question that would get posed around this village. And we are really comfortable and very trusting in each other in terms of how this now gets managed by a community housing provider on site.
JOURNALIST:
And the costs once it's built and residents are in, is that a taxpayer costs for utilities and water and etc?
COOK:
It's a great question. So, in a nutshell, this will be a community housing site. So social housing consists of public housing and community housing. A community housing provider will manage this site. People will pay 25 or 30 per cent of their income, which is generally a supplement payment of some description through Centrelink. And then on top of that, the federal government – and this is the value of community housing – the federal government provides Commonwealth Rent Assistance, which has recently – thank you very much – been actually increased quite significantly, which will have again a knock on effect for community housing providers to provide them with more money to improve the services and the sites that they provide for people who are vulnerable in our community. So we've got the public housing sector doing their role. We've got community housing sector doing their role, and this here will be managed by community housing in partnership with Kaurna Yerta, with the Indigenous Land and Sea Cooperation, with SA housing. And we will see an across community collaboration, which will ensure people are living in affordable rental here in a place based solution that's appropriate for the people, which is accessible, which will ensure longevity for the people living here. And then out in the community, we will provide better in terms of public housing.
JOURNALIST:
So the residents will pay for their utility. So, much like‑
COOK:
Yeah, there's different charges that apply, but also residents, if you remember as well, there is quite a complex system of concession payments, which I would almost guarantee you everybody who moves into this village would be able to access nearly every concession that's available. So there is a whole range of opportunity for people to live in more of an affordable housing solution.
JOURNALIST:
I was just going to go to Minister Collins. Is there anything like this set up around the country? Or is this a first for this type of project to look after Indigenous elders? Or is this could this be then used then as a test pilot for other jurisdictions around the country?
COLLINS:
Yeah, what we're seeing today is groundbreaking in terms of the commitment and the connection to community. What we're seeing, as we've heard, is a partnership not just with the community housing provider, but with the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation and also with the Kaurna elders. So it is that collaboration that is unique. As we've heard, it's taken a long time to get the model ready. Now they're ready for investment, the federal government has stepped up to the plate with the state government and with the Indigenous organisation so that we can work together in terms of the capital. These types of projects, we will be able to see more of them across the country, now that we've seen the model and how to do it right.
JOURNALIST:
Deloitte Access Economics has released a report that shows South Australians are expected to endure another five years of financial pain. Has the federal government done its own modelling showing that the next five years are going to be financially tough for household?
COLLINS:
Look, we know that Australians have been doing it tough. That's why we're providing cost of living support through things like cheaper childcare, things like increased Commonwealth Rent Assistance, things like cheaper medicines, things like Fee Free TAFE. And that is why we also made the difficult decision that we did last week to provide tax cuts to all taxpayers. And we're talking about here in South Australia, 89 per cent of South Australians getting a bigger tax from the proposal that we made, and the changes that we're going to make and legislate through the Parliament. These tax cuts are an important part of cost of living relief for Australians. As I said, every Australian taxpayer will now get a tax cut because of the decision that we made. It is a tough decision, but it's the right decision to help more Australians, and particularly here in South Australia – 89 per cent of South Australians will get a bigger tax cut because our changes. But we do understand that people are doing it tough. We have said that we’ll look at other measures as we go through to the Budget, but we are already providing $23 billion in cost of living relief, including $2 billion in social housing. We've heard here in South Australia about how that is making a huge difference. It will mean that South Australia can get more homes on the ground more quickly because of our investments. We know that cost of living in terms of the cost of accommodation is a significant part of that. So we're working right across the board to try and relieve cost of living for as many Australians as we can.
JOURNALIST:
The Prime Minister has recently talked about wanting to help middle income Australians. But on the issue of housing and this project here, it's helping housing for people on lower incomes. But what are you doing to help people on middle incomes get into housing?
COLLINS:
Obviously, we want to provide social and affordable housing. We're making changes to build‑to‑rent to get more rental, more affordable rentals onto the market. We're talking about with the Housing Australia Future Fund and the National Housing Accord 40,000 social and affordable homes across the country. At least 20,000 of that 40,000 will be affordable rentals across the country. We're obviously increasing the Commonwealth Rent Assistance. But we know ultimately, the way to put downward pressure on rents and housing prices is to add to supply. Here in Australia we have less houses per 1000 people than the OECD average. We haven't built enough homes for quite a long time. Turning that around is not easy, but we're turning it around, and we want to invest more in housing right across the board.
JOURNALIST:
Will you rule out any changes to negative gearing?
COLLINS:
What we’re doing is providing tax cuts to Australians. That is absolutely our priority. We have no intention of revisiting any commitments that we took to the 2019 election.