Page 3109 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 9 November 2021
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was a story from the Betoota Advocate by mistake. If, indeed, you have ticked off on the release of land against housing targets then it says your targets are just plain wrong.
Can I say that it is pleasing to see that finally there is some growth in the Affordable Community Housing Land Tax Exemption Program. I remain astounded that it took so long for the government to (a) remove the cap on this program and (b) remove the time limit. I think it is pretty safe to say that had this program been implemented without a time limit it would have had a much greater take-up.
Thumbs up from us on increases in funding to specialist homelessness services and let us wait and see if the extra 400 homes will actually be delivered in the growth and renewal of public housing commitment because, Mr Assistant Speaker, you can guarantee that we will be watching very, very closely.
I did just want to say in closing—credit where it is due—that this ministerial statement does score very highly in the area of bureaucratic waffle. In all seriousness, when it is measured against the scale of using lots of words but saying very little, it is a cracker. I think my favourite section is this one:
… a key priority in the strategy’s fourth year of implementation will be to identify focus areas and priorities to support continued delivery. This work will be integrated within the strategy’s existing goals and objectives and represents phase 2 of the implementation.
That is art. That is art right there, and I think we should all sit back and applaud it.
MS BERRY (Ginninderra—Deputy Chief Minister, Minister for Early Childhood Development, Minister for Education and Youth Affairs, Minister for Housing and Suburban Development, Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, Minister for Sport and Recreation and Minister for Women) (11.20), in reply: On behalf of the ACT public servants who have assisted in putting this paper together, I pass on Mr Parton’s thankyou, whilst not entirely appropriate, to the staff that have worked hard in putting this paper and this report card together.
I remind Mr Parton that he attended the summit where every other person in the ACT who attended was involved in developing the strategy together and that the actual strategy and report card are designed together, in partnership with housing organisations, support services and others in the ACT community to deliver on equality of housing opportunities for every person in the ACT, regardless of their income.
I thank him for his interest and I look forward to him watching what the ACT government achieves in this space, supporting particularly those people who do not have the same opportunities as others to get into a home of their own.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
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