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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 5 Hansard (11 May) . . Page.. 1435 ..

MS TUCKER (11.26): I ask for leave to present the report of the Select Committee on Public Housing, together with extracts of the minutes of proceedings.

Leave granted.

MS TUCKER: Pursuant to order, I present the report of the Select Committee on Public Housing entitled The Role of Public Housing in the Australian Capital Territory, together with extracts of the minutes of proceedings. This report was provided to the Speaker for circulation on Friday, 31 March 2000, pursuant to the resolution of appointment as amended on 25 November 1999. I move:

Mr Speaker, it is a pleasure to speak about this unanimous report of the select committee which inquired into the role of public housing. As members are aware, this inquiry was a response to the government's so-called proposed reforms to public housing which were announced to the Assembly and the ACT community in the budget of 1999-2000.

This announcement took everyone by surprise. After all, this is a government which has a consultation protocol which requires that a thorough consultation process must be undertaken before any major policy changes are introduced, but Mr Smyth informed us that consultation is not necessary if the policy change is going to be announced as a budget item. There are, of course, certain budget decisions which can, by their nature, require surprise announcements, such as increases to charges where early knowledge would cause a rush before those charges were in place; but to make a claim for a general exclusion from government consultation policy just because the policy was announced at budget time is really quite mischievous and severely diminishes the government's credibility.

The community were belatedly offered an opportunity to respond to the proposals through this select committee. There was a strong and consistent concern expressed about the lack of consultation, the actual proposals themselves and the fact that there was inadequate analysis of the implications of the proposals, particularly for those who are disadvantaged in our community.

The committee received 45 submissions and heard from 44 witnesses at public hearings. I would like, at this point, to acknowledge the quality of the work put in by the community on this important subject and thank them for their efforts. I also thank Judith Henderson for her diligence in supporting the committee in the work of this inquiry, and Mr Hird and Mr Wood for their contributions.

Clearly, a very important aspect of the role of public housing is to alleviate poverty and other forms of disadvantage and to contribute to social cohesion. The provision of adequate stable and affordable housing is a very basic need of humans. Without this basic need being met, people are going to find it much more difficult to address life's other challenges. It is from a secure home that people can deal with their health needs,

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