Page 1845 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 1 May 1991
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MRS GRASSBY: Once we realise who is the Minister for Housing in the ACT, we realise why such little attention is given to this policy area. Having his hands on the Attorney-General's portfolio, consequently we have seen Mr Collaery strut about this Assembly, the media and the Canberra community like a legal Napoleon trying to prove his worth, and all this has been going on to the detriment of the housing portfolio, and subsequently to the Canberra community.
Let us look at the major element of the housing crisis in Canberra at the moment, which is, of course, the rental crisis. I have searched through media clippings to try to find one example where Mr Collaery has said that he is doing something concrete to solve the rental problem in Canberra or, at least, to lessen the pressure. I have not been able to find this one example. Of course, I have found numerous examples of Mr Collaery pretending to be this century's greatest legal mind. But, importantly, this illustrates that this Government's commitment to housing is truly pathetic. Here we have one of the most pressing issues in Canberra which is either directly or indirectly affecting thousands of Canberrans, and we have not seen the Housing Minister earn his keep. There has been no public announcement that he is consulting with the HIA, the MBA, the Housing Trust, ACTCOSS or any other body which deals with housing in one way or another.
We all know that the influx of tertiary students at the start of the academic year puts pressure on the rental market; but, again, we have not seen any public announcement from the Minister that he is trying to work in collaboration with the Australian National University or the University of Canberra to solve this recurrent problem. I can provide quotes where property managers from large real estate agencies are talking about the rental market in Canberra as being "absolutely desperate", but still we have not heard anything from the Housing Minister. As one headline had it: "We'll be living in caravans". Mr Speaker, I think that we will probably be living in caravans before we even hear from this Minister.
As a further example of Mr Collaery's lacklustre commitment to his housing portfolio, I think it is worth turning our attention to the issue of a Rental Bond Board in Canberra. After some two years in the Assembly, even Mr Collaery has woken up to the fact that Canberra needs such a body to look after bond moneys and to make sure that tenants get their bond money back when they have kept their rental properties in good condition. But where is the Minister's Bill? We have heard that it is on its way, but we still have not seen it.
We have seen the draft version released by the Minister, but that was so badly ridiculed that it has been taken back to the drawing board. Even his own Law Society thought it was pathetic. We know that the reason why there is not going to be a bond board or there will be something that is
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