Page 1886 - Week 07 - Thursday, 20 August 1992
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
the homeless, young and old, men and women, and particularly women and children who have suffered domestic violence and are finding, often for the first time, some peace and tranquillity and a chance to start their lives again in SAAP-run services.
In times of recession additional pressure is placed on these services, and these services are under threat by the Opposition. They claim that their opposition is based on lack of consultation on finding appropriate accommodation. That argument is a nonsense. For SAAP programs to run effectively, by definition they require accommodation. That accommodation, for SAAP to be effective, must be integrated into the community.
We know the Liberals' philosophy on public housing because we have heard it from Mr Cornwell, we have heard it from Mr Westende, and we have even heard it from Mr De Domenico: Marginalise public housing out on the fringes of the community in the cheapest possible housing. Mr Cornwell has been ranting for ages about what he calls the Fraser Hilton - with his extraordinary performance in naming an accommodation service and providing an address, although fortunately we managed to ensure that the media, responsibly, did not publish that address. He wants SAAP recipients put in the cheapest possible accommodation. We reject that. We say that supported accommodation should be appropriate.
It is intriguing that when the Liberal Party had their hands on the tiller in this Territory, when Mr Kaine was Chief Minister and Treasurer, he was able to appropriate some quite significant sums of money for refuges and for these SAAP programs in some inner city suburbs. There was not a problem then. But now, this new, reformed, "we are more conservative" Liberal Party decides to attack SAAP.
Mr De Domenico: No, there is not a problem now. It is just that you are not telling the truth.
MADAM SPEAKER: Order!
MR CONNOLLY: I was just accused of not telling the truth, but I will not bother. It is only from Mr De Domenico.
The 25 SAAP accommodation services in Canberra are scattered around some 40 locations, the vast majority with the cooperation and acceptance of the neighbours. Procedures have been developed in the ACT, jointly by the Housing Trust and the Planning Authority, to guide the consultation process that occurs each and every time a new location is selected for a supported accommodation service. Madam Speaker, I have a copy of these procedures and I table them for the Assembly's information. I urge members opposite to read them and learn from them. These procedures have struck the delicate balance between affording the immediate neighbours the right to comment on those matters that are appropriate to the proposed use and respecting the rights of the service users to the same privacy and confidentiality in their home, however temporary that home may be, as any other Canberra citizen. That is an important point, because SAAP services provide a home, and people who live there have the same rights to privacy and confidentiality and the same obligations in relation to their property as any other members of the community.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .