Page 1702 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 1 May 2012
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available for low income earners. Minister, do you maintain that the ACT’s low income households are comparatively better off than low income households in other cities?
MR BARR: The Anglicare analysis excluded public housing. Public housing provision in the ACT is higher than in any other jurisdiction in Australia. The government is taking a number of steps, working in partnership with community housing providers, to provide more affordable rental. But undoubtedly, in the context of private provision of affordable rental, there is a market failure. It will require government intervention by way of changes to a number of policy settings. I look forward to the debate on this matter as further policy options are put forward for public consideration. I thank Ms Bresnan for her interest in the matter. I am sure she will make a worthy contribution to the debate in the coming months.
MR SPEAKER: Ms Bresnan, a supplementary question.
MS BRESNAN: Minister, why has the government’s affordable housing action plan focused mostly on first homeowners and not given greater attention to people who are most likely to be in housing stress, being low income households in private rentals?
MR BARR: Ms Bresnan’s analysis seems to assume that the housing market operates in segments that are in isolation from each other. One must view housing as a continuum, and more people accessing homeownership frees up properties for those in the rental market. Rent is the interaction of supply and demand. The only way to put downward pressure on rents is to increase the supply of affordable housing, and that is the focus of government policy.
MR COE: Supplementary, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Mr Coe.
MR COE: Minister, as part of the overall housing shortage in Canberra, what are you doing to ensure that the most deserving and needy people are in public housing?
MR BARR: That question actually relates to the minister for housing. Nonetheless, we seek through our housing affordability strategy to provide a range of housing options. I note that some of the most innovative options to provide—
Mr Coe: Public housing, I said.
MR BARR: I am not the minister for public housing.
Mr Coe interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Members, let us just hear from the minister.
MR BARR: Thank you, Mr Speaker. If I am able to complete my answer, in relation to the government’s housing affordability policies, we have in place a range of policy solutions across the breadth of the housing market. I do note that the most innovative
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