No current water infrastructure funding for three Adelaide land release sites, committee told

Australia Broadcast Center

3 days ago

A parliamentary committee has heard $1.5 billion budgeted for water and waste infrastructure only covers pipelines for one of four land release sites in Adelaide, but the state government says the funding and timeline are going according to plan.
State government officials told SA's Budget and Finance Committee on Tuesday that the money would deliver water and sewerage infrastructure to a planned 2,000 new homes at Onkaparinga Heights, formerly Hackham.
The opposition said it was not good enough that the remaining three sites — Sellicks Beach, Dry Creek and Concordia — would not be considered for trunk mains water pipe construction until 2028.
"We were told by the government in 2023 that the construction of the first homes could begin in 2024, now that has come and gone and it appears that only one of those four sites would be remotely ready for slabs to be poured in 2026," opposition housing spokesperson Michelle Lensink said.
"Because you can't build houses with pipework, because the money's not available, it just means those houses are years and years away and all the hope that, particularly first home buyers might've had for those timeframes, are pushed out by probably at least three or four years."
Department for Housing and Urban Development chief executive David Reynolds told the committee on Tuesday $1.5 billion budgeted for the regulatory period of 2024 to 2028 did not cover the other three sites.
"They were additional to that, so they were never expected to get water and wastewater services during the existing regulatory period," he said.
"They all were things that we will need to consider during the next regulatory period in terms of the contribution made from the various sources — that is developer contributions as they make them as part of augmentation charging, as is normally the way for these sites, as well as water prices, as well as any government contribution.
"That will be for the next regulatory period from 2028, or earlier if the government decides."
SA Housing and Urban Development Minister Nick Champion told ABC Radio Adelaide the government always expected developments of this size to take time.
"If you look at the Housing Roadmap, it articulates in 2027 that we have to have those agreements with industry in place for the first stages of these projects," Mr Champion said.
"The later stages would have to be funded over multiple regulatory cycles with SA Water, which run in four-year cycles, and I've already said I don't think those four-year cycles are adequate timeframes to put in long-term infrastructure.
"For the Liberal Party to be putting out this hysterical, overwrought press releases doesn't help anybody."
The Concordia and Dry Creek developments, north of Adelaide, will each have 10,000 homes while Sellicks Beach, south of Adelaide, is expected to have 1,700 dwellings — 15 per cent of which will be earmarked as affordable housing.
In an announcement in February 2023, the state government said releasing more land to the market would make housing more affordable to South Australians.
SA Property Council executive director Bruce Djite has called on the government to do more to help people get into home ownership now, such as fast-tracking approvals and code amendments.
"While South Australia waits for the greenfill land releases to come online, there's a lot of infrastructure that still needs to be delivered out there," he said.