Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of the answer by the Minister for Defence, Senator Payne, to my question with respect to Defence Housing Australia.

Through my involvement in the Public Works Committee, the oldest standing committee of the parliament, I know a little bit about Defence Housing Australia. It is an extraordinary organisation, and an extraordinarily successful organisation. It has thrived under the leadership of Mr Howman. It is fair to say that his departure has caused a degree of angst. It is quite unprecedented for Australia's Chief of Defence, Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin, to take the extraordinary step on Tuesday of releasing a statement warning the Turnbull government that the military supports the continuation of DHA as a government owned entity.

How does it work? I have visited many of Defence Housing Australia's developments around this great country of ours, and it works with a very commercial, proper model. It delivers excellent outcomes for service personnel. It leads the country in the development of suburbs in total. They have won awards for designing entire suburbs. They have led efficiency in building. They have led efficiency in environmental sustainability in housing. They have been an exemplar in the way that housing is delivered, particularly in areas of the country where it is extremely expensive—like in Tindal and Larrakeyah in the Northern Territory and in Townsville, where there is a great military presence. They have delivered an excellent product that is well respected and well appreciated by Defence, first and foremost, and by the people who enjoy the postings around this great nation of ours. They have a great model that Defence is really happy with.

They also have a great model which the general population is happy with. There are thousands of mum and dad investors who invest in Defence Housing. You can build a house and Defence Housing will take it on and rent it from you or you can invest in one of their models. There are many thousands of Australian investors using the Defence Housing model to get an appreciable gain in a very smart, focused way without the tremendous risk of running their own property portfolio. Defence is happy; investors are happy. And there is more: the government is happy. It is a government owned enterprise that actually does what it is supposed to do: it keeps the customer happy, brings in the community and delivers a $90 million-plus premium back to the government.

There is one niggly doubt: it may impinge on some private developers making exorbitant profits and delivering less than equitable outcomes. Some of those at the big end of town do not want the government in there doing the right thing by the Defence department and by the investors of Australia and delivering a reasonable benefit back to the government. No, they want to get in there and make their suburbs cheaply and nastily. They want to make a quick quid and move on. They do not want to have a long-term, sustainable model, which has been proven to deliver over many years—and Mr Howman has been part of that, as has the board of DHA over many years—a good outcome for Defence, the government and the investors.

We know that the Commission of Audit recommended privatising it, and we know from the minister's answers here today—given with a very straight bat; there was not a lot of agility; there was not any nimble behaviour at all—that we ruled it out on 11 May 2015. We know that where there is this sort of reporting and where there is this sort of interesting departure things are afoot. There is no doubt that this will play out in this chamber and through estimates and through the media over the rest of this year, because it looks as if they are going to bag it up, flog it off and put the money in the bank, forgetting about the wherewithal of the Defence personnel, the dividend to government and the genuine benefit that Australians who invest in Defence Housing Australia are currently getting.