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Teachers campaign to retain housing

Posted on November 27, 2009, 8:08am and updated on November 30, 2009 at 1:07 pm

Teachers quietly demonstrated at the Cave Gardens in Mount Gambier yesterday morning to voice their concerns over the State Government’s plan to offload one third of its employee housing estate.

The move could affect dozens of teachers, police officers, nurses and allied health staff across the region.

It is believed the Blue Lake City has one of the largest supplies of government employee housing in regional South Australia.

Mount Gambier North Primary teacher Leanne Clark said it was important to provide housing to new educators.

“It was important for me coming out of university because I had housing to go into that was affordable,” said Ms Clark, who attended at the Cave Gardens yesterday.

She said new educators already faced stretched finances coming out of university and moving to the country added more financial burden.

“Having housing to move into when I moved from Adelaide made it a lot easier for me,” Ms Clark said.

“It really took the stress out of the move, given it is often a difficult transition period moving to a new job, new housing and a new city.”

Reidy Park Primary teacher Susanne Mouat — who has been renting a government-owned home for three years — said these facilities were vital to attract teachers to rural and regional areas.

She said the rent was affordable, supplied promptly and houses were usually in good areas.
Melaleuca Park teacher Nick Agnew said he was given housing early in his career when he moved from Mount Gambier to Port Augusta.

“I didn’t know anything about Port Augusta and I only had two days before the school term to find accommodation. It was great to know that I had a place to go into,” Mr Agnew said.

He said these houses were not just supplied to teachers, but other essential service employees such as police, nurses and allied health workers.

“These people are moving to areas where they have no family or social contacts, it is essential they are helped with housing,” Mr Agnew said.

Echoing similar comments was Reidy Park teacher Alan Hogg.

Mr Hogg — who was a previous tenant of government housing — said it was important to provide housing particularly to those on contracts who could be forced to move term to term.

He said government housing was also crucial to attracting teachers to country and regional areas.

“You can’t attract people to country areas if you can’t provide housing,” Mr Hogg said.

Australian Education Union vice-president Marcus Knill described the move as having a potentially disastrous impact on country education.

He said education workers filled 57pc of the state’s 1800 or so government employee houses.

But a spokesperson for Treasurer Kevin Foley said the policy position on the sale of government employee houses was still being finalised and the government expected to be providing more detail in the New Year.

“At the time of the mid year budget review in 2008 the Treasurer made it clear the houses would be sold sometime during the period of the forward estimates — that is to say prior to the end of the 2011-12 financial year,” the spokesperson said.

He also said the sales would be made when the market conditions would guarantee a best return for the state.

The spokesperson said these sales would occur after taking into account where there were viable rental markets that could sustain commercial renting arrangements and where there were not, in which case the government would continue to hold and maintain the housing stock.

“The feedback we have is that many government employees in regional areas, where there is a viable commercial renting market, would like to have a choice about where they live,” the spokesperson said.

“This is about providing more choice not less.”

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