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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 1 Hansard (16 February) . . Page.. 179 ..
MR SMYTH (continuing):
hope that somebody will take them. We have to make sure that we do not ruin the amenity of the tenants currently there by putting in another group who may have a different lifestyle. Having the ground floor for older tenants and turning the first floor into party central with a whole lot of young singles is not looking after the needs of the existing tenants.
We do offer those units, and I would love to see those units tenanted, but this is symptomatic of the problems that we have in the mix and blend and the location of the properties that we inherited from the Federal Government a decade ago. We now have a large blend of housing units which are awkward for our need or are not needed at all. That is why this Government is making sure that we meet the needs of the tenants, not making sure that the tenants meet what we have to give them. In our social agenda and in making sure that there is social justice for all our tenants, we do meet where they want to be.
Our longest waiting lists are in Tuggeranong and Belconnen. You can get accommodation fairly quickly in the inner north. But a large number of our tenants want to be with their support networks. They want to be with their family. They want to be with in-laws or grandparents. They want to be with their network of friends. They want to be where they grew up. Often we will have locations where we cannot tenant properties reasonably. We should not be forcing an unholy mix where you ruin the amenity of one group simply to fill units. The last thing you want to do is put a large number of older tenants on the second floor, where it is unsuitable for them. They turn them down. They have options and they turn them down.
Under this proposal of Mr Wood's we could certainly put a whole lot of young people in there, but that might not meet the needs of the existing tenants. I do not think it is fair to ruin the amenity of existing tenants. We are looking for solutions. We are selling off inappropriate properties if we no longer require them or we have a large number of that style and making sure that we buy back into the market. For the information of members, we are also making sure that we build appropriate accommodation and that we use adaptable housing where we can so that over the life of a property it can be used by the same family as that family grows and then contracts in its later years. This Government is making sure that we meet the needs of the tenants where they are rather than trying to shoehorn them into properties that are not suitable or are not required.
MR WOOD: I ask a supplementary question. What a lot of empty wind! Really, Minister, I do not think you did yourself credit. I will come back to you with a number of properties that are on the ground floor. If you are trying to tell me you cannot find suitable tenants for that place, nobody will accept that. Minister, you did not answer the part of my question about scotching the rumour that you might sell that site. If you do not want to answer that, if you do not get up and make some comment, would you come back to me in a day or two and tell me what your department's strategic asset management plan has in store for that site?
MR SMYTH
: It is our endeavour always to make sure that our properties are as they should be and that we accord amenity to our tenants as we should do. I am not aware of any intention to sell that property at this stage, but the Government has always said that we will not play the game of ruling in and ruling out. If it was appropriate for that
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