Page 2767 - Week 08 - Thursday, 24 August 2006
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homelessness or actual homelessness. Those are the sorts of people we will help. Prior to this we were able to help people get a house in 12 months. We are going to be able to do it in three months—12 weeks. It is dropping to 12 weeks. It is need-based.
Dr Foskey is saying, “What about those people who have just been bounced off the list?” Firstly, they are already housed. They are not sleeping under a bush; they are not sleeping rough. If they were, they would be in the group that we are going to be satisfying the needs for. They are already housed, even though it is tough. I would bet you pounds to whatever else you like that they are in receipt of commonwealth rental assistance if their income is below a certain level. We reverse it. What is the word I am searching for, where the commonwealth usually nick our money, now it is going back the other way?
Mr Gentleman: The expenditure flow.
MR HARGREAVES: Yes; that will do. But we are saying now that the Stanhope government will look after the people in real need. As for the people who can look after themselves, we will encourage them to do just that. We have been accused about the 500 houses. People have not listened. It says in this year’s budget that we will investigate the sale of 500 homes—to do what? To buy more stock—to buy more stock to be more relevant.
The people on the housing list at the moment do not wish to have a three-bedroom house in the suburbs. They have voiced a preference for two-bedroom apartment style living. Just imagine—this is where the investigation is headed but it is not there yet—what will happen if we sell the 500 homes for $300,000 each. We will have ourselves a fair bit of money. We can buy an enormous number of two-bedroom apartments for that money. The money we realise from this will be ploughed into additional stock.
I have said that a number of times. Let us hope that is the last time I have to say it: we are not about reducing the stock. We are about the appropriateness of the stock. We have some properties out there that have been empty for too long, because there are people on the list who do not want them. They want a two-bedroom apartment. So we prepare them for sale, sell them off and buy or build two-bedroom apartments—not in blocks like the ABC flats but in smaller ones in and around the town centres.
It is all about the appropriateness of the stock we have available. Of course, the services that go with them are unique to this particular service. You do not get that kind of service in the private sector. If you go down to Kimberley Gardens at Wanniassa—and Mrs Burke knows Kimberley Gardens—if there is a bloke kicking up a fuss in one of the units there, the police are called and he gets a good telling off. In the government housing system, if that happens, the neighbours ring housing and say, “Come down and sort it out.” You do not get that service in the private sector, but we provide it.
We intend to provide all of the things that we do within the money we get, but we have to reduce the expenditure, as much as we can, to national benchmarks. And we are going to do it. I am not going to take a blind bit of notice of Dr Foskey, who says, “Just add some extra money into the system. Do not tell me how we are going to get it or who is going to miss out if we have it.” As I said to one of the people who came into my office who has had a funding cut, I haven’t got the money; it has gone. If I am to give them
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