On Saturday 21 March 2026 South Australians go to the polls to vote for the members who will make up the 56th Parliament of South Australia. SACOSS, as always, is concerned with the interests of the community sector and issues that impact our goal of advocating for justice, opportunity and shared wealth for all South Australians. Our focus this election is on five critical areas – sector support, housing, energy, health, and human rights.
quick links
There are policy briefs explaining all of our proposals in these areas in the links below.
sector support
The community services sector in South Australia provides a vital range of services to vulnerable and disadvantaged people in areas ranging from mental health and disability support to financial counselling. SACOSS is calling for funding and workforce development reform to ensure quality service delivery. Read our Sector Statement, signed by over 50 organisations.
Fixing Sector Funding
Community service organisations in South Australia are under increasing strain due to inadequate government funding that fails to keep pace with rising service delivery costs. In response, SACOSS has released a comprehensive proposal calling for a new sector-specific indexation formula, and a review of all government contracts to ensure they reflect the true cost of services. The proposal also advocates for the inclusion of fair profit margins and limitations on claw-back provisions on unexpended funds. These reforms are vital for the sustainability, innovation, and effectiveness of community services that support vulnerable South Australians.
Policy Brief : Fixing Sector Funding
Sector Workforce Plan
Our sector is also facing a looming workforce crisis, driven by an ageing population and a rapidly retiring workforce. In response, SACOSS is advocating for a 10-year workforce development plan to retain and grow the sector’s workforce—across child, aged, disability, and community services. This strategy must address professional recognition, recruitment and retention, career pathways, and mental health supports, ensuring the sector can meet increasing demand and continue delivering essential services across the state.
These priorities relate to all community sector funding across the state, but community services in regional areas struggle with higher costs of service delivery due to transport costs, and potentially the need to pay premiums to attract staff. These extra costs need to be incorporated into the base level funding, the value of which will be maintained by proper indexation.
In regional areas workforce challenges are particularly acute with workforce shortages, and with difficulties in attracting and retaining skilled workers compounded by lack of affordable housing, childcare and transport. In many parts of regional South Australia there is also a lack of accessible training and education to support local people to train for the jobs available and there is limited pathways to local employment, meaning that many young people in particular leave the region. These specific regional challenges would need to be considered in any workforce development plan for the sector.
human rights
Protection of human rights across Australia is limited and there are gaps in current protections and growing evidence of rights breaches across SA. There is a clear case for introducing a Human Rights Act in South Australia to protect, clarify and enforce the rights of all South Australians.
A Human Rights Act for SA
This SACOSS proposal outlines the urgent need for a Human Rights Act in South Australia. Building on the unanimous recommendations of the SA Parliament’s Social Development Committee and strong community support, it calls for comprehensive public consultation and the consolidation of existing rights into a single, enforceable framework aligned with international human rights standards.
Policy Brief : A Human Rights Act for SA
A Human Rights Act could be an important tool for people in regional South Australia to ensure access to services and supports that are available to people in Adelaide (or other major centres). While it is unlikely a Human Rights Act would enable direct right to a service (where a government would be forced by a court to provide services), it is likely that governments would be forced to consider access to services and supports for people in regional areas.
housing
Housing and shelter is a basic need for all people, but the housing market is not delivering adequate and affordable housing to those most in need. SACOSS proposes a fairer definition of ‘affordable housing’ for South Australians on low and moderate incomes, increased investment in homelessness services, and capping rent increases.
Public Housing
Despite welcome recent investments, South Australia’s supply of public and community housing remains insufficient to meet growing population needs or reduce the extensive housing wait list. SACOSS is urging the government to go beyond its current Housing Roadmap by maintaining at least the 2025 and 2026 levels of builds beyond 2027. This increased ambition is essential to address decades of underinvestment, ease pressure in the broader housing market, and ensure that those locked out of the private rental system can access safe, secure housing.
HOMELESSNESS SERVICES
South Australia’s homelessness crisis continues to deepen — and the services designed to support people at risk are under-resourced and overstretched. In this proposal, SACOSS outlines the urgent need for expanded investment in homelessness services to meet growing demand and deliver real outcomes.
While long-term solutions lie in addressing housing supply and affordability, dedicated services remain critical to bridging people into housing and support. Evidence shows these programs improve lives and deliver substantial savings to government through reduced health costs, lower rates of crime, and increased workforce participation.
Policy Brief: Homelessness Services
Capping rent increases
SACOSS is proposing a cap on rent increases for existing tenancies at the rate of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). This reform aims to protect low-income renters from being priced out of their homes, while still maintaining a fair return for landlords. Unlike a rent freeze, this “third generation” rent control model provides stability for tenants without distorting the market, and complements existing reforms and housing supply efforts to address the state’s worsening rental affordability crisis.
Policy Brief: Capping Rent Increases
Revising the definition of ‘affordable housing’
SACOSS highlights how South Australia’s current definition of “affordable housing” fails to reflect the real financial capacity of low- to moderate-income households. Despite government intentions, many homes sold under affordable housing policies remain out of reach. SACOSS proposes a revised definition of affordable housing to ensure houses are genuinely affordable and mortgage repayments do not exceed 30% of household income for those on low and middle incomes. This would ensure that government housing policy truly supports those it aims to help.
Policy Brief: Revising the Definition of ‘Affordable Housing’
Despite lower average incomes in regional areas, and the lack of housing being a significant barrier to employment and economic development, regional areas have proportionately less public and community housing than the metropolitan area. The table in the Appendix here shows that, at the last census, public and community housing makes up 5.1% of all housing in the greater Adelaide area, but only 4% of regional housing.
The areas with the highest proportion of public and community housing are the Outback (which includes Port Augusta and the APY lands), and Eyre Peninsula and the South West (which includes Whyalla and various Aboriginal communities in the west). This skew in social housing will be exacerbated by current plans for new public and community housing which are very focused on Whyalla and Port Augusta. While these houses are needed to underpin industrial development, other areas of the state also need significantly more public and community houses with three areas of the state having less than 2% of housing stock as social housing.
While rents in regional areas are generally lower than in metropolitan Adelaide, during the life of the last parliament the price of new rentals has gone up faster in almost all regional areas than in metropolitan Adelaide. SACOSS regional members also report a chronic lack of availability of rental properties in regional areas. The challenges vary across different regions, with some facing increased demand driven by rapid development, while some tourist areas see loss of long-term rental accommodation to the short-stay tourist market.
Regional areas also often have a lack of diversity in housing types with relatively few home units available. In the September Quarter 2025, units made up 42% of new rentals in Adelaide, but only 20% in the rest of the state. This means that cheaper housing options are likely to be more limited in regional areas, which increases the need ensure rental prices are not increasing at unaffordable rates.
The government’s definition of an affordable housing sale price is $398,000 for land and dwelling in regional South Australia. This is lower than the metropolitan figure of $517,000, but is still unachievable for many people in regional South Australia where average incomes are also relatively lower. There is also significant variation in house prices across regional SA and many places will not have major new developments of a size requiring any affordable housing to be built. A more nuanced definition of affordable housing is required for regional areas.
While the stereotype image of homelessness is rough sleeping in a city park and doorway, homeless is a real – if somewhat hidden – problem in regional South Australia. Regional service providers report that there are insufficient emergency housing responses available for people, including women and children experiencing domestic, family and sexual violence. In areas such as the Upper Spencer Gulf, competition for temporary accommodation from the FIFO workforce for large scale industrial development presents additional challenges for homelessness services. The regions need to form a key part of an increased government response to homelessness.
energy
Poorly insulated houses with inefficient appliances or expensive gas cost both the environment and renters obliged to pay too much to heat or cool their homes. So SACOSS is calling for minimum energy efficiency standards and a roadmap for the transition away from domestic gas to full electrification.
Energy efficiency
Energy affordability is a growing concern, especially for renters living in poorly insulated, inefficient homes. SACOSS is advocating for strong, enforceable minimum energy efficiency standards for all rental properties in South Australia — alongside mandatory energy performance disclosure and a government-supported upgrade pathway.
This proposal outlines a practical and equitable approach to lowering energy bills, improving living conditions, and helping meet climate targets — while ensuring low-income, First Nations, and public housing tenants aren’t left behind.
Policy Brief : Energy Efficiency
Roadmap to Residential Electrification
Gas is an expensive household fuel and a major contributor to climate change. SACOSS outlines a bold roadmap for phasing out household gas appliances, halting new gas connections, and ensuring the costs of disconnection and transition are fair. The proposal calls on government to act now to reduce household energy bills, avoid stranded assets in the gas network, and ensure vulnerable households aren’t left behind in the energy transition.
Policy Brief: Roadmap to Residential Electrification
Equity and consumer protections in the National Energy Objectives
Energy bills continue to disproportionately affect low-income households, exposing deep flaws in the assumptions underpinning Australia’s National Energy Market (NEM). In this proposal, SACOSS calls for South Australia to lead a national reform effort by advancing amendments to the National Energy Objectives. These amendments would introduce two critical priorities: social equity, and the minimisation of consumer harm and risk. By embedding these values into the regulatory framework, SACOSS aims to reshape energy policy so that it protects consumers—especially the most vulnerable—rather than relying on outdated market assumptions that have failed to deliver fair outcomes.
Policy Brief: Equity and Consumer Protections in the National Energy Objectives
By comparison with Adelaide, higher maximum temperatures in the north and west of the state, and lower overnight minimums in many regional areas make heating and cooling requirements and thermal efficiency more pressing. Further, lower average incomes in regional areas may mean energy affordability is even more of a challenge, thus making energy efficiency even more important.
Electrification has particular challenges in remote areas not connected to the grid and the National Energy Market. Part of the electrification roadmap SACOSS is calling for needs to ensure that remote communities have access to affordable and reliable electricity, not based on polluting diesel and fossil fuel generators.
health
All South Australians deserve to have their voices heard when it comes to something as fundamental as health. SACOSS calls for increased and sustained funding for the People’s Health Voice to ensure inclusive, community-led health reform across South Australia.
Funding for the People’s Health Voice
The People’s Health Voice (PHV) is a community-designed initiative that amplifies the voices of marginalised South Australians in health system reform. Established in 2023 and led by people with lived experience of health access and inclusion barriers, PHV provides an independent, state-wide platform for meaningful participation in health policy, practice, and advocacy. With nearly 500 people engaged to date—including rural residents, gender-diverse youth, Aboriginal seniors, and others—the PHV has built critical pathways for real-world health concerns to influence decision-making. SACOSS is urging a commitment to continued and expanded funding to secure the PHV’s future and ensure it can further connect, inform, and advocate for equity-driven healthcare reform across SA.
Policy Brief: Funding for the People’s Health Voice
Access to health services is a major problem in many regional areas. Lack of GPs and basic services, and the need to travel long distances to specialist services, are major impediments to good health outcomes. Additionally, data from the last census shows that people in regional areas are significantly more likely than Adelaide residents to have chronic health conditions.
The People’s Health Voice provides an avenue for these issues and regional experiences to feed into health planning and decision-making. Over the last two years, the People’s Health Voice has undertaken in depth consultation on the Southern Yorke Peninsula and in Ceduna and surrounding communities. The PHV supported community members to contribute to the Yorke Peninsula Health Services Inquiry, which contributed to SA Health’s commitment to actions aligned with recommendations made through the PHV process. This provides a concrete example of the PHV’s broader role in translating community insight into system-level change.
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