Page 1852 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 1 May 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Given these facts that I have outlined today, I am not quite sure how the Opposition can claim that there is a crisis. Once again, its members are tilting at windmills, as we often see from that little group opposite. They are scaremongering. Once again they show their indications of being a second-rate opposition, and that, Mr Speaker, will very quickly be identified by the people of the ACT when they are put under pressure in the forthcoming months.
MS FOLLETT (Leader of the Opposition) (3.39): I cannot believe that I heard that. I really think that if that is the best the Alliance can do on a matter of public importance like housing, then its members really ought not to be in government at all. They should even give up the pretence. Mr Speaker, what we heard from Mr Jensen was remarks addressed exclusively, of course, to that proportion of the population who own their own homes, or who are buying their own homes.
Of course, we on this side of the house are in agreement and took action whilst in government to assist people to buy their own houses. Mr Jensen referred to the first home buyers assistance scheme. We increased that. He referred to the housing affordability figures for the ACT, and I agree with him that we are relatively advantaged. He referred to the high interest rates, and I agree with him that they make it more difficult for people to own their homes, and I have said so publicly.
What Mr Jensen has completely overlooked, from his exalted position in government, is that there are some 35 per cent of Canberrans who are housed in public or private rental accommodation. In overlooking that 35 per cent of our population, Mr Jensen has sought to deny that there is, in any way, a crisis in ACT housing. He has, of course, completely obfuscated the issue. He does not understand it. He is unable to address it and he has made a total mess of his remarks. That is not surprising, coming from the bungling Government opposite; but I think it is a bit of a shame, on an important issue like this, that we should get such a one-eyed approach.
Mr Speaker, there is no doubt in the minds of people who do know about this issue that there is currently a crisis in ACT housing. For Mr Jensen's benefit, I might just go through some of the factors in that crisis, although I thought that Mrs Grassby addressed them very well. Had Mr Jensen been listening, he would not have been so ignorant in his own remarks.
Mr Speaker, the ACT Housing Trust, I am advised, has about 12,000 dwellings under its management. There has been an increase in those numbers, historically, and that has been an increase, I believe, of some 20 per cent since 1984. Nevertheless, in looking at that figure, you also have to look at the numbers of people requiring that kind of accommodation, and at the waiting lists - the call on the Housing Trust's accommodation.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .