Page 955 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 17 June 1992
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Housing Trust Rents
MR CORNWELL: My question is to the Chief Minister. I refer, Chief Minister, to your assurances to the Leader of the Opposition, quoted in the Assembly Hansard of 12 September 1991, at page 3248, that your residential land tax did not - I repeat "not" - apply to unencumbered or non-rebated Government Housing Trust tenants because such "Housing Trust rents are set at market levels". In May your colleague Mr Connolly advised me on notice that the average unencumbered trust rent for a three-bedroom property in August 1991 was $137.50 per week, and in February 1992 it was $143.50 per week. In the same month Market Facts, the Real Estate Institute of Australia publication, advised that median weekly rents of a three-bedroom property were $170 in August 1991 and $185 in February 1992 - that is, $33 and $41 respectively above the Housing Trust rents. I ask: Do you still support your claim that Housing Trust rents are set at market levels?
MS FOLLETT: I think the best I can do for Mr Cornwell is take his question on notice because clearly I will have to consult with Mr Connolly, the Minister who has responsibility for the Housing Trust. But I would comment that Housing Trust properties are Housing Trust properties and the market value of them is probably a separate question from the figures that you are referring to.
Mr Cornwell: No, I am talking about the rents.
MS FOLLETT: Well, market value for Housing Trust properties.
Mr Cornwell: No, I am talking about the rents that you claim are set - - -
Mr Connolly: They are set for the market rent for those houses.
Mr Cornwell: I am speaking of your comment that Housing Trust rents are set at market levels.
MADAM SPEAKER: I assume that you are asking a supplementary question, Mr Cornwell.
Mr Cornwell: No, I am trying to clarify the question for the Chief Minister.
MS FOLLETT: Madam Speaker, I continue to assert that Housing Trust rents are set at market levels for those properties, not for other properties. Mr Cornwell himself has quoted a median price. So he is not comparing Housing Trust properties with other replicated Housing Trust properties; he is comparing Housing Trust properties with a median of the whole market, I presume. As I say, I will take the question on notice, consult with the Minister responsible, and if there is anything to add to what I have already said I will advise Mr Cornwell.
MR CORNWELL: I ask a supplementary question. In taking that on notice, and I thank the Chief Minister, could she also consider that, with a $37.25 per week average shortfall in those six months between the market rent and the Housing Trust rents, her Government has forfeited $2m from potential revenue?
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