Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister representing the Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, upon notice, on 29 June 2011:

Given that the Housing Affordability Fund (HAF), a 5 year, $450 million Government investment set to end in 2013, was designed 'to reduce housing-related infrastructure and planning costs, and to pass savings onto new home purchasers':

(1) Can an overview of the HAF outcomes to date be provided in tabular form, including for each project: the project name, suburb, state or territory, and a description of the affordable housing outcome.

(2) What is the net number of affordable housing dwellings created by the HAF so far, for each of the following Affordable Housing Bands: A, B and C.

(3) With reference to the answer to question no. 78 taken on notice during the 2010-11 additional estimates hearings of the Environment and Communications Legislation Committee which stated that 380 000 homebuyers would benefit from projects under the HAF, can an outline of the evidence of benefits to those 380 000 homebuyers be provided.

(4) Given that a key intended outcome of the HAF was for the development of a national ePlanning roadmap, as well as helping to implement electronic Development Assessment (e-DA) systems, can an update on any outcomes relating to e-DA from the HAF be provided.

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities has provided the following answer to the honourable senator's question:

The requested information on each project is provided in the tables below:

Infrastructure projects

Reform only projects include

Electronic Development Assessments

Around 13,000 home buyers will receive direct savings from projects created by the Housing Affordability Fund. 749 home buyers have received savings to date. Information is not collected under the program in relation to the Affordability Housing Bands: A, B and C.

The answer to Question 78 stated: "The estimate of 380,000 home buyers expected to benefit from the planning and development reform projects under the Housing Affordability Fund is based on information provided by the project proponents. Given that the majority of projects are still in their early phases of delivery, the department has not sought to revise this number at this stage."

This information remains current, with most projects still in their early phases of delivery. By way of example, one reform project, Target 5 Days in south-east Queensland, is estimated to benefit approximately 16,000 home buyers each year with a projected saving of around $4000 on all newly constructed homes in one of Australia's highest growth areas.

The national ePlanning roadmap was completed on 30 June 2011.

All jurisdictions were required to implement a protocol, known as the Electronic Development Assessment Interoperability Specification, allowing different IT systems to communicate data with each other based on common technical requirements.

Five jurisdictions are already compliant with the protocol, and are currently using electronic development applications. They are Queensland, Northern Territory, Australian Capital Territory, South Australia and Victoria. Three jurisdictions that are expected to be conformant by June 2012 are New South Wales, Western Australia and Tasmania.