Page 238 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 30 May 1989
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A member: You are not Robinson Crusoe.
MR COLLAERY: That is an in joke, Mr Speaker. I am sure it is not lost on the Minister. The proposals put forward in this Assembly, in the absence of some of the political hyperbole, are all very much put forward in a bipartisan spirit, and one welcomes the fact that this Assembly can work on a collegiate basis on that score. But the Rally also acknowledges that the Minister, in her important reply to the matter raised by Mr Duby, of course had a comprehensive and prepared argument.
The Rally notes that we received notice of this discussion of a matter of public importance shortly before we walked into this chamber - in fact minutes before. The Rally would wish to draw, respectfully, to your attention, Mr Speaker, the practice in the House of Representatives which, in the absence of guidelines in the standing orders here, would normally be persuasive in this Assembly, and that is that usually in that House across the lake about two hours' notice is given of items of this nature.
One notes, fortunately, that the Minister responsible seems to have had that notice, and that is probably good for the public interest, but it once again indicates that the Rally has been left out in the cold on this issue, because Mr Duby was in our office this morning and could have told us.
The Rally has had a fully developed housing policy for a number of months. It notes that evident in the ACT now and of great concern to us is the polarisation in the housing situation of the haves and have-nots - the comfortable and those in considerable discomfort in their position, either in private housing with over-extended mortgage commitments or in public housing which does not altogether suit their interests or which is not related to their current situation. Many of the possible means of alleviating the current housing crisis, particularly for low income earners and first home buyers, require examination and intervention at Federal level, and we in this Assembly must acknowledge that aspect.
We also acknowledge that under the Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement each State or Territory is able to use the funds provided to it according to that State's or Territory's priorities. That allows us a choice of home purchase assistance, rental housing, public rental housing and housing assistance for special needs groups. I note that Mr Horsham is in the public gallery. He would agree that we have that and more in the ACT, and the situation for the housing policy review is good. However, the Rally notes with concern that successive ACT administrations under this Federal Labor Government did not apply the full $58m from the Grants Commission allocation for housing in the 1987-88 budget. We have never received an adequate explanation for that.
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