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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 7 Hansard (24 June) . . Page.. 2325 ..
MR SMYTH
(continuing):In summary, I believe there are more appropriate ways for the Assembly to monitor the activities and the performance of the CFU, and it is incumbent on the government to encourage more relevant indicators and other matters to be implemented. That will enhance overall accountability and responsibility in the management of the operation of the CFU. We all look forward to the outcomes of the review, when it is finalised.
Proposed expenditure agreed to.
Proposed expenditure-part 1.8-Home Loan Portfolio, nil expenditure.
MS TUCKER
(5.25): For me, this line represents missed opportunities to deal with housing affordability. In one sense, the crisis in affordability in the ACT is the result of the fact that we live in a society that is predominantly shaped by market forces. It has been quite disturbing to see how the price of houses and of building houses has increased since the bushfires. Rent has also increased.This is against a background of alternative investments looking shaky and dodgy and people investing in housing. The reality of people's lives is that, more and more, housing is taking a very large proportion of their income, putting people in poverty. It is disappointing to me that this budget had not addressed this issue in a much more proactive way. I know I have already said this tonight, and I will be speaking even more about it at more length later on.
The home loan portfolio was an old way of making available more affordable loans to people to buy their ACT housing property. The loans were structured, as I understand it, in a way that recognised the economic circumstances of the beneficiaries. It was a way to compensate for the market system and bring social justice into it. We do not do it any more, and that is unfortunate.
MS DUNDAS
(5.26): This was investigated a little bit in estimates, when we discussed what was going on with the money-that you cannot scrutinise an appropriation that is used by the ACT home loan portfolio. Most of it is stored in bank accounts spending a lot of time doing not a lot at all.I still have questions about the $120 million of accumulated Commonwealth-state housing funding. I would have liked to see more being done this year to improve access to affordable housing. We could have done that using the earnings from the accumulated funds in the home loan portfolio and establishing the trust to invest in property in a whole lot of other ways. But, as has been said, this appears to be a missed opportunity and does not do anything to make the housing situation in the ACT any better.
Proposed expenditure agreed to.
Proposed expenditure-part 1.9-InTACT $6,271,000 (net cost of outputs) and $5,920,000 (capital injection), totalling $12,191,000.
MS DUNDAS
(5.28): As with the Chief Minister's Department, rollovers appear to have become a regular feature of the InTACT budget line. I hope that this year the projects we are appropriating money for in this budget in InTACT will
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