Page 1877 - Week 09 - Thursday, 19 October 1989
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then Liberal-dominated council in Wollongong. Later that council became Labor-dominated and then fibro houses went up everywhere. So it went the other way. But, here in the ACT, there appears to be developing an excellent public housing policy. I have some reservations, of course, which I will mention in a moment, but this type of policy is one which we, in government, could quite easily adapt to and further refine.
The Rally welcomes the release at this stage of the 1989-90 housing policy review and we note with pleasure some of the initiatives contained in this review. Firstly, we welcome the proposed increases in the stock of public housing, increased measures to attend to maintenance issues, and the provision of public rental housing in the ACT. We note that the commissioner has resisted the temptation to compete in a certain market, and that is welcome.
The problem of high interest rates, unemployment and falling real wage levels means that there is increasing demand for this type of housing, and we commend any attempts to meet this demand. However, we would like to see the future stages of the housing policy review examine the potential for a shared equity participation program to be instituted in the ACT. Such a scheme, which is also being introduced interstate, would have the advantages of allowing tenants to bridge the deposit gap by progressively taking up small shares in their homes as their circumstances permit. Smaller deposits then would be necessary to purchase the home outright, and tenants would have a vested interest in maintaining their homes. Therefore the Territory capital asset would directly benefit from any proper improvements that tenants made and from their good maintenance. Also, some of the enormous capital investment that the Housing Trust has would be freed up to provide activities in other priority areas.
The Rally also commends the introduction of stamp duty exemptions for first home buyers as well as the establishment of a rental bond trust, initiatives which have long been Rally policy. However, we trust that when further details are available for those schemes - and we do await some more detailed statements - it will be clear that the money deposited by private rental tenants will only be used to assist these tenants by, for instance, setting up a tenants advisory service and dispute settling mechanism, and not for any cross-subsidisation of home purchases by being used to offset duties lost in stamp duty exemptions. We do not see a subsidy mechanism as being appropriate in an essentially free-moving market.
I also welcome the commitment to undertake much needed improvements at Ainslie Village and other Housing Trust complexes and dwellings. The poor levels of maintenance and general dwelling standards in some Housing Trust properties are a source of considerable unhappiness in some areas. Likewise, the undertaking to rehouse the residents of Melba Flats in more appropriate accommodation is a
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