Page 1007 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 24 March 2015
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To put this in perspective, in more than 60 per cent of the 1,000 asbestos assessments undertaken to date on these homes, fibres have been detected in living areas. This means that some 600 Canberra families were living with raw amosite asbestos fibres inside their houses. I want to make it very clear that this does not mean the other 40 per cent of homes where fibres have not been found in living areas are safe. We know the fibres are in the ceilings, walls and subfloors, and it is inevitable that these fibres will eventually find their way into the living spaces of these homes. We, as a government and a community, had to act, and we did, even without the support from the commonwealth government that was expected, given the history of this issue. We have done the best we can to respond quickly, fairly and within our means.
We know many home owners want the government to support assisted private demolition of their houses. What this means in practice is for the ACT government to purchase the homes, refund the cost of the demolition and block clearing while home owners keep their land through this program and do not need to repurchase it. I can assure you, Madam Deputy Speaker, that this option was considered fully by the task force and the government during the development of the buyback program.
It was not progressed for a range of reasons, including broader equity considerations for the 1,021 affected home owners, as it would favour those able to afford to pay for the demolition works upfront as well as temporary accommodation while a property was rebuilt, as well as the overall financial and logistical impacts of the scheme. This included the net impact of the scheme on the territory budget. Even when blocks are resold after remediation to assist in offsetting some of the costs of this program, it will still cost the ACT community at least $400 million. This is significant and, as analysts have predicted, it will impact our bottom line for years to come after the Mr Fluffy response.
The ACT government considers the buyback program which was announced on 28 October 2014 to be the fairest and most responsible program available to the territory. It is at the edge of affordability for the territory. The buyback program provides home owners with an opportunity to move to another property by providing market value of the affected property ignoring the presence of loose-fill asbestos; a stamp duty waiver to support their purchase of a new home in Canberra; relocation support up to $14,000 for a family of four; the first right of refusal in repurchasing of the affected block; and land rent provisions for eligible home owners.
To date, 902 of the 1,021 home owners—around 90 per cent—have opted in to the buyback to have their house valued. The valuation process means two independent valuations take place on the house by experienced valuers appointed by the Australian Property Institute of the Australian Capital Territory. The average of these valuations then forms the offer price to the home owner from the territory government.
Offers have ranged from $360,000 up to $3 million from the 786 houses having had both valuations undertaken to date. This shows the breadth of properties impacted by this issue, which spans across 58 of our city’s suburbs. To date, 609 home owners have accepted an offer for their houses to be purchased by the territory government. This means 60 per cent of home owners are now in the active process of selling their homes through the buyback program, and there is still more than three months until this program closes.
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