Page 4459 - Week 15 - Thursday, 22 November 1990
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Every day of the week I have phone calls from people who have virtually paid off their houses three times to banks, with high interest, but who are now being kicked out of the houses because they cannot meet the payments. They ring me and ask whether I can get them a house from the Housing Trust because they have nowhere to live. People need to be counselled; they honestly think they can afford a house; they get themselves into trouble and then cannot afford it. Should the Housing Trust really be getting into this field in which this could be happening? If so, will it provide a section for counselling? Will this come from some of the Housing Trust's budget?
I understand that the housing lists are getting longer. We sat in a very proud position, when I was Minister, of having the shortest housing lists in Australia. I understand they are now like the hospital lists - getting longer. If that is the case, Minister, I do not think we should be selling off housing stock; we should be hanging on to it. Maybe we should be considering building houses, doing a deal with a private financial area. This not only would create employment for people in Canberra and look after the building industry but also would not be decreasing the stock of houses that we already have.
MR MOORE (11.03): Mr Speaker, I would like to clarify a point on the issue that I raised before. I have no difficulty, under certain circumstances, with people in public housing being able to buy their homes; but there are other issues, to which I think Mr Collaery and I, by and large, at this stage anyway, appear to have a bipartisan approach.
Mr Berry: That must be a worry.
MR MOORE: It is a worry, is it not? The question is about how they are financed and the ramifications of the financing. There are also further ramifications in terms of retaining public housing in each of the areas of Canberra, particularly the older areas where, I believe, we should retain at least the proportion of public housing that we have.
MR COLLAERY (Minister for Housing and Community Services) (11.05): I think Mrs Grassby is really pumping hard to get a political point out of this debate. The Housing Trust waiting list, as Mrs Grassby well knows, has variables to it, which have nothing to do with who is in power. As Mrs Grassby well knows, this Government has done nothing to directly or indirectly reduce access to housing stock.
The whole proposal, which is all it is - a progressive purchase scheme - is to increase the affordability and accessibility of housing, which is part of the Labor Party's plank. Mrs Grassby has to work hard to reconcile that with her statements that are suggestive of the fact that somehow our policy has some ideological bent to favour - - -
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