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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 7 Hansard (1 July) . . Page.. 2040 ..


MR WOOD (continuing):

(a) the role of government housing policy in alleviating poverty and other forms of disadvantage and contributing to social cohesion;

(b) the arrangements for developing regulatory policy for community housing and the competition related issues for providers;

(c) the impact on the ACT community of the Government's proposed changes; and

(d) any other related matters;

(2) the members of the committee shall be Ms Tucker, Mr Hird and Mr Wood.

I think all members would agree with me that the need for a roof over one's head is one of the primary needs of people in our society. In large measure, that need is provided by government in the ACT with some 12,000 homes. I think 12 per cent of homes in the Territory are provided by government. I sometimes believe that the Government does not recognise the difference between a house and a home. We put a tenant into a house, but for that tenant it becomes a home. It is a key aspect of their life. If there is any threat to that, it causes considerable difficulty to that tenant.

Among other matters that I want to look at in this select committee is security of tenure. The Government has recently announced that it wishes to change some of the requirements. That has caused considerable concern to people in the community. In the future, if your circumstances change, you may no longer be invited to live in a government residence. I think that is very unfortunate. I believe that the tenants require security. They need to know that this is a home that they can take care of and that will be theirs as long as they fulfil the conditions of the contract in terms of rent. I am not convinced that to suggest that if they get a job when they did not have one, or if they get a better job when they had a lower paid job, they should then move on is necessarily a very good thing. Therefore, I would like to explore that matter through the committee that I propose be established.

There is a range of other issues around housing, as members will note in the proposed terms of reference, that I would like to see examined. The first is the role of government housing policy in alleviating poverty and other forms of disadvantage and contributing to social cohesion. We acknowledge, do we not, that government housing has a large role to play? Are we tending to drift away from that?

The other matter that is referred to in the proposed terms of reference is the role of community housing. I support the proposals in principle, but I have some difficulty with the way in which they seem to be applied. There seems to be a rush to dispossess ACT Housing of a large number of homes and push them into the community sector. I am not convinced that that rush is a good thing. It will benefit me and other members,


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