Page 3484 - Week 13 - Thursday, 26 November 1992
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HOUSING ASSISTANCE (AMENDMENT) BILL (NO. 2) 1992
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (10.32): Madam Speaker, I present the Housing Assistance (Amendment) Bill (No. 2) 1992.
Title read by Clerk.
MR CONNOLLY: I move:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
The Bill makes a number of changes to the Housing Assistance Act 1987 to improve the administration of housing assistance delivery by the Commissioner for Housing and to incorporate amendments to the Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement. It is necessary, from time to time, to update legislation to reflect current situations and practices to ensure the efficiency of public sector administration. This Bill brings forward such changes to the Housing Assistance Act.
The changes update the powers of the Commissioner for Housing by increasing to $1.5m the monetary limit on the value of contracts which the Commissioner can enter into without ministerial approval. The increase reflects commercial realities and amends the original limit of $0.5m, set in 1987, to take account of inflation, escalating land costs and housing industry trends, particularly the increasing prevalence of joint ventures between the Housing Trust and private sector developers. The changes also provide for the establishment and operation of three trust accounts. This separates the activities for housing rental services and home purchases systems, and complies with the requirements of the Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement.
This Government announced in the 1992-93 budget that the Commissioner for Housing loans program, the HomeBuyer program, would be extended through the use of an off-budget funding mechanism. The creation of a home loan trust account for this purpose will ensure that the Commissioner for Housing separately accounts for, and reports on, the home lending activity associated with moneys secured from private borrowings. The right of individuals to appeal against decisions that affect them is an integral element of this Government's social justice policy. It is also essential that the appeal process is cost-efficient and can be readily accessed by those individuals. The changes to the Housing Assistance Act therefore also include improvements to the review process for decisions made under housing assistance programs by the Commissioner for Housing. The Bill formalises existing internal review arrangements.
Madam Speaker, on 24 June 1992, this Assembly resolved that I should write to the Federal Minister for Health, Housing and Community Services, the Hon. Brian Howe, MP, seeking the retention of the Commonwealth housing agreement. The ACT Government did that and took it up in private negotiations as well, and the Federal Labor Government has retained the agreement and has guaranteed the continuation of funding under that agreement for the four years 1992-93 to 1995-96.
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