Page 1196 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 24 June 1992
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MS SZUTY (3.50): Madam Speaker, I see this matter of public importance today primarily as an issue of principle. I feel strongly that it is important that the Commonwealth, States and Territories continue to have a role in major policy arenas. That includes housing, the home and community care program, and the supported accommodation assistance program. The Commonwealth's role as the provider, overseer and manager of policy initiatives for the benefit of all Australians is indispensable. The States' and Territories' part in these agreements is to provide the on-the-ground support to these policy goals by administering the relevant schemes and responding to the needs of their local communities. We need to adopt sensible strategies, accommodating the roles of both the Commonwealth and the States and Territories in the policy formulation and administration of programs as well as in the development of new and innovative programs. The abandonment of the Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement does not serve these objectives at all well. I agree wholeheartedly with my colleague Mr Moore that the dismantling of the agreement would be a retrograde step.
Let us look at some related issues. The ACT Government recently made much of the Territory's high credit rating. That credit rating was based on many things, including the ACT's assets, which include about 10 per cent of the housing stock in Canberra. Here I include in the term "housing stock" all forms of public housing. What would happen to this stock if the Commonwealth were not to make the housing grants purpose specific and the funds disappeared into Consolidated Revenue? I also think that the idea of rental assistance vouchers as an alternative to the Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement is a step backwards. Charitable organisations no longer use vouchers, unless there is no other form of help available, because their use created a second class of citizens and made these people the subject of discrimination. How much more of an impact could such a scheme applied to the rental of accommodation have? There are questions of equity and access, of deals, as referred to by my colleague, which would have to be made to ensure that sufficient numbers of affordable dwellings were built, and with the possible consequence of the run-down of our current housing stock - a valuable asset.
There are times when an ACT government will be faced with a need to borrow from one budget to give to an area deemed to be more pressing. I put it to the Assembly that, as public housing is a long-term and slow moving sector in many ways, it is easy to see the potential for skimming from its resources to support other budget areas. We need to protect the asset we have built up over time, and the best way to achieve this is to keep Commonwealth housing funds specifically for this purpose. It appears that the Commonwealth is considering pulling the plug on funding for public housing and providing rental assistance in lieu to all tenants, both public and private. While the concern for tenants in the private sector who have to pay more than 20 to 30 per cent of their income in housing costs is laudable, pulling the plug on public housing is not seen to be the answer. The provision of some form of rental assistance across the board to all tenants would be extremely difficult to administer, and would require that the Commonwealth assess the adequacy of housing being rented by various household types and determine what is a fair rent level. This is not on. It is also economic suicide.
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