Page 413 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 27 June 1989

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on licences, some of which have not been renewed for years. They are only tacit occupants of the properties - in some cases properties those families formerly owned for generations.

The fact of the matter is that, with questions being raised as to whether we will get up to Gungahlin, it is hardly likely that we will get down to the remoter regions around and past Tharwa and other areas. Is it not time to properly assess and properly derive revenue from these areas? Is there not a capacity for a rural industry revival in some sections of the ACT? What funding can be provided for that? What will be this Government's interest in those people who live out in these areas, save for occasional calls from the land licensing branch of the City Administration. I call upon the Chief Minister at an early date to establish a register of licensees and to determine what their personal wishes are in respect of the land they are on.

In many cases soil erosion, fencing and other issues are not being attended to, but are being attended to at the cost of the infrastructure costs of this Territory. Our municipal services go out there and carry out these works because these people are not going to spend money on land they do not have an interest in.

That brings me to the situation of housing in the Territory. Clearly public housing is now another major force in the interests of young home owners. Clearly the Federal Government's allocation of $310m from Loan Council funds towards housing throughout Australia with an ACT component was pathetic. Of course, it was seen as an election gambit by Mr Hawke; he was going to win votes out of that. Now it can be seen as a measure to stop the vast ills of the private housing program at mortgage belt levels. We would expect that the supply allocation and Appropriation Bill in the area of housing would ensure that innovative programs are developed to assist government tenants to secure deposits.

The Rally has spoken before about a system to ensure that there is a progressive equity participation in the Housing Trust tenancy area. An element of all Housing Trust rents could be raised to contain that and be assigned towards a deposit fund. After some period during which the tenants take care of the homes they know they will eventually own, the deposit has been earned on that progressive system of allocation between rent and deposit and there can be a purchase to some extent within confined boundaries of these government housing developments. Not only will they be government housing developments, but the Rally encourages joint venturism and joint participation in the development of public housing in the ACT.

Not many people are aware that the whole suburb of Gordon is now owned by one private developer, a company, the principal of which is Mr Alex Brinkmeyer. Stages 1 and 2


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