Page 1971 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 16 June 1993
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MINISTER FOR HOUSING AND COQ SERVICES
LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY QUESTION
QUESTION NO 687
Housing Trust Properties - Sale Policies
MR CORNWELL: To ask the Minister for Housing and Community Services In relation to the Ministers comment (2CN, lam, 5 April 1993) that "The Liberal Party, of course, has got a longstanding argument that we should be flogging off all these inner city properties to the private sector so flash townhouses can be built and ACT Housing Trust people should be marginalised in dwellings built on the fringes of Canberra."
(1) What is the source of the Ministers information regarding, "flogging off all these inner city properties".
(2) To what sections of Canberra does the Minister specifically refer when he uses the term "marginalise" as used in the above comment.
(3) To which specific sections of Canberra has the Minister referred when, on several previous occasions, he has used the term boondocks" (usually in relation to Tuggeranong).
MR CONNOLLY: The answer to the Members question is as follows:
(1) The purpose of my comment was, of course, to highlight the difference in philosophy towards public housing between the Labor Party and the Liberal Party. .
Historically successive Liberal Governments have had a strong focus on selling government housing in the ACT. It is notable, for example, that over 3,300 houses were sold in the financial years 1975/76 to 1982/83, leaving a stock of about 9,900 dwellings at February 1983, including some 6,500 houses, to cater for the needs of public housing clients.
By contrast, following the 1983 election, the Federal Labor Government committed itself to the task of building up ACT public housing stock through substantial construction programs and the suspension of sales. Even when sales were re-introduced in April 1991 it was only on a restricted basis. As a result, the public housing stock now stands at over 12,300 dwellings including some 8,200 houses.
I note that, in 1990, two inquiries ( Priorities Review Board and the Committee of Inquiry into the Assets and Public Debt of the ACT) established by the Alliance Government advocated the large scale sale of ACT public housing; that is, dwellings occupied by tenants paying non rebated rents.
1971
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