Page 1573 - Week 06 - Thursday, 3 May 1990
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The principles governing the delivery of housing assistance have been expanded to reaffirm the eligibility of all client groups. Importantly, the eligibility of people requiring support to live independently in the community is explicitly recognised - something, I think, which is also long overdue. The principles now also reflect the need to provide assistance in a coordinated manner and are aimed at improving the quality and choice of housing assistance.
The establishment by the Alliance Government of the Housing and Community Services Bureau in the ACT will greatly assist the integration and coordination of housing and housing related services provided to the community. The agreement also commits States and Territories to the implementation of an independent appeals mechanism as well as encouraging national consistency of eligibility and rent setting principles. I am pleased to note that the ACT is leading all the States in the establishment of equitable appeal arrangements for public housing clients - something of which we can all be very proud.
With respect to the financial arrangements under the new Commonwealth-State housing agreement, the significant change is the conversion of Commonwealth loan funding to grants. There is now a requirement for States to match at least half of Commonwealth grant funding with State grant funding, with these new matching requirements being phased in over four years. Under the agreement the ACT is guaranteed to receive around $18m in each of the three years following 1989-90 - a not insubstantial sum.
A study undertaken by the Commonwealth has indicated that there are advantages in investing in rental stock rather than providing assistance in the form of rental allowances. The new Commonwealth-State housing agreement therefore requires the creation of a rental capital account. All grant funds, Commonwealth and State, now go into this newly created rental capital account. This effectively upgrades the priority for public housing acquisitions and ends the practice of using grant funds for home ownership assistance. However, the new agreement gives considerable emphasis to expanding home ownership through the introduction of more innovative financing arrangements. In particular, shared ownership arrangements are now seen as an important innovation which will allow many low to moderate income households to move into home ownership rather than remaining as rental tenants. Of course, that goes contrary to the philosophy of those opposite. The Alliance Government's housing policy allows us to introduce a progressive equity participation scheme, and I know that the Housing Trust is working on the details of this scheme at the moment.
To boost home ownership assistance the agreement encourages the use of external or commercial funds by States for on-lending to borrowers. To facilitate this the Commonwealth has determined that such programs will not come under Loan
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