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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 5 Hansard (1 May) . . Page.. 1301 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

We have had quite a number of reports, the poverty task force report being one, emphasising that for a poor person in a relatively wealthy community the impacts are much greater. We need to take that into account. We also need to take into account the situation we have at the moment where private housing is quite tight and therefore there is greater pressure on public housing.

I remind members that our waiting lists for public housing have come down very significantly over the last few years. I think that in itself is an important aspect. The reason of course is a strong economy. The government has upheld its responsibility in a very positive way, as Mr Humphries will indicate very shortly in the budget speech, in providing this sort of situation.

The outcome is that we want to rework housing sites such as Burnie Court. We want to do away with the sorts of social problems that are there. We also want to make sure that we can achieve a reasonably socially equitable outcome. That is the purpose of public housing.

Yesterday ACT Housing put master plans into the Planning and Land Management section of Mr Smyth's portfolio. They expect that the normal process will be gone through with that development. It is my view that, with the normal steady progress, we should be in a position to begin the demolition of Burnie Court in the middle of the year. I think this is a sound thing. There is a lesson we have to learn from it. It is not just about the buildings. Most of you who have walked through Burnie Court will realise that intrinsically these are not horrible buildings. But we have a combination of the wrong sorts of buildings and a huge number of people who are allocated inappropriately to them. We have to make sure that our policies fit very closely with those things.

It being 3.00 pm, questions were interrupted pursuant to the order of the Assembly.

Appropriation Bill 2001-2002

Mr Humphries presented the bill, its explanatory memorandum and the following supplementary budget papers:

Title read by Clerk.

MR HUMPHRIES: (Chief Minister, Minister for Community Affairs and Treasurer) (3.01): I move:

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