Page 412 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 2 March 1994
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We have some 13.9 per cent, nearly 14 per cent, of stock in Red Hill. In Ainslie, where property values are notoriously very high at the moment - a very desirable suburb in which to live - some 32 per cent of the housing stock is held. In the suburb of Gordon - and this, I am assured, includes the current controversial Housing Trust stock holdings - we have slightly under 3 per cent of housing stock. So, for all the controversy about Gordon, we are in fact well under. The average should be running at round about 12 per cent of the housing stock in the ACT. I will table this for the information of members if they are interested in the distribution of the public housing stock in the ACT. I can feel 500 questions coming on over this, Mr Deputy Speaker, but in any event I table this document.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: That fellow Cornwell asks an awful lot of questions.
MR CONNOLLY: He does indeed. The issue as to whether there was misleading conduct by the vendors here is one that did become controversial late last year. I asked the Director of Consumer Affairs to look at the matter. He has formed some preliminary views about that which have resulted in the entire files, the Housing Trust files, all of our involvement in it, being sent to the DPP for appropriate action. I do not want to go further than that.
I appreciate that Mr Stevenson, when I pointed that out publicly, did adjust the tenor of his remarks so that he did not draw conclusions which would perhaps have been pre-empting those decisions. I will report to the Assembly when that conclusion is reached. Certainly, whenever it has been raised with me as to whether a person can claim that there is no public housing, I say no, and I have said that publicly not just in relation to this controversy but also in relation to previous controversies. The fact that people claim to have acted on the misrepresentation here is a matter obviously of concern to those individuals, and of concern to the Government, and as a result of that I have put the matter in the hands of the appropriate authorities.
MR DE DOMENICO (3.34): Mr Deputy Speaker, I rise briefly to endorse the comments made by both Mr Stevenson and Mr Connolly. I went to three or four public meetings that were held in Gordon. There is no doubt that a lot of people there were very concerned because in their view - and I stress "in their view" - they believe that they may have been duped by some of the things they saw in the media.
I think Mr Stevenson made a very good point when he said that as far back as December 1990 there was a facsimile from a particular real estate company saying quite succinctly, "Definitely no government homes in Gordon". That facsimile was sent from someone to a prospective buyer saying, quite definitely, no government housing. Like the Minister and Mr Stevenson, I am appalled that some people think that there should not be any public housing anywhere. As the Minister said, both political parties have said quite categorically - and I believe very strongly in this - that there ought to be a mix or a pepper-and-salt effect, with public housing in every suburb. If the Minister could afford to buy in O'Malley or Weetangera or wherever, there seems to be no reason why that should not happen. I also believe very strongly that if some people wish not to buy a particular house because of its location, whether it is because it is next-door to a public house or what have you, any prospective buyer also has an inherent right to purchase where he or she wants to purchase.
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