Page 1490 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 17 April 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
MRS GRASSBY: I have just made you a Gestapo hat, Colonel Klink. I will present it to you later. The point is that the people who enjoy living in Housing Trust houses in Charnwood and Theodore are fine, but those who wish to live in Yarralumla or Turner should be able to do so. This is where their friends are, where their family grew up, and it is the area they know very well.
Of course, as I said, this is not to suggest that there is anything wrong or unsavoury about living in either Theodore or Charnwood; but the point needs to be made that I, and the Labor Party, will find it totally unacceptable if the Housing Trust, under the Minister's direction, starts selling off well located houses in the inner areas of Canberra and then turns around and spot purchases properties on the outskirts of outlying suburbs. If this is done, then Housing Trust tenants will find themselves in properties with bad access to schools, shops, public transport and other amenities.
I would like to add here that this has not been the intention of the Housing Trust staff that I had anything to do with over my period as Minister. In fact, in my conversations with staff at the Housing Trust they have always agreed that a certain amount of housing in the inner city areas should be kept and that, where we can knock down two or three houses and build five or six townhouses, this should be done.
If we sell off housing in the inner city and put Housing Trust clients further out in the outer suburbs, this will be a retrograde step in housing policy in this Territory. I will not sit back and allow the Minister to talk about his new and progressive housing policy if this is to be carried out. In further arguing this point, I think it needs to be stressed that one of the great things about Canberra is the good social mix we enjoy in our suburbs. As such, except for one or two odd exceptions, Canberra suburbs reflect a well-blended mix of social, economic and other demographic types. Up until now we have never created obviously rich and poor suburbs in this wonderful city of ours, and the social mix which Canberra has enjoyed is something we can all be rightly proud of. I thank the Housing Trust for the hard work that it has done to make sure that this has happened. In every case, the Housing Trust has made sure that people going for a job do not have to be afraid to put down their suburb in case they do not get the job on the basis that the suburb is not considered a good one.
However, if we start to witness a large scale sell-off of Housing Trust properties in the inner Canberra area without repurchasing in this area, then we will be well on our way to creating an obviously wealthy suburban section of Canberra. If this occurs, then we will find this proposal doing something it was not designed to do, and that is to distort the residential housing market in Canberra.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .