Page 1539 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 10 May 2017
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bipartisan commitment to our public housing strategy, including reducing concentrations of disadvantage by spreading our public housing throughout Canberra, utilising land that is zoned for this purpose.
I encourage all Canberrans to support public housing tenants, because they are people. As our neighbours, they deserve to have quality shelter in a supportive community, sometimes even next door to us. I cannot support this motion because it does nothing to ensure that our most vulnerable can have a decent roof over their heads. It does nothing to improve the egalitarian city that we live in and just seeks to divide our community based on the type of house that people live in.
MRS JONES (Murrumbidgee) (11.39): That was an interesting little exercise from Mr Steel about the views that people have of what the Liberals do. He has gone from completely agreeing with our position, essentially, to turning it into some sort of political attack.
Ms Berry is smart enough to know that, with respect to the Liberals, some people in this place have spent their whole careers looking after people’s housing needs, and we are absolutely in support of public housing. But that does not mean that we can never come into this place and have a discussion about how a majority government conduct their business. There is no reason why we should not come into this place and discuss the methodology that is being used.
Interestingly enough, the Greens, who like to come in here and lecture us about proper parliamentary process and how important committees are, because they know that committees can go into depth on things, are using this excuse: “I’m sorry, my committee is a bit busy to deal with the matter.” It is a matter that has so exercised the community that this morning we had four very significant petitions submitted to this place. The matters will be dealt with by the committee, and I hope that Ms Le Couteur’s statements do not mean that it will be pushed down the line and not dealt with in an appropriate way by that committee, on which she sits.
This motion is the result of a decision by the government, and their oversight regarding community consultation. Just because public housing has already been built on CFZ land does not mean that it is what the community would like. If facilities have been built and they are functioning, that is fine. But it does not mean that local residents should not have a say or have their opinion heard if they do not agree. That is what this place is for. That is what democracy is meant to be about. It is not about lining up with a team and saying, “Whatever the team wants, I will support, because it’s the team and the team’s good and everyone else is bad.”
We should be able to come into this place and say that there is clearly an amount of disaffection with decisions that have been made at the cabinet level; consultation was not held beforehand, and the community has a right to have a view. People in Weston, Woden, Holder, in the new Molonglo and down in Woden, as I say, are not stupid. They are not without a heart and they are not unreasonable members of the community. And I do not approve of them being characterised as such.
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