Page 3909 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 15 December 1992
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MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (8.44), in reply: At the outset may I say that Mr Cornwell made various comments about my leaving the chamber or not listening to his comments. For the purposes of the Hansard record, I should make it clear that I was organising advice from my advisers to ensure that I could most effectively respond to the criticisms or issues raised by the Liberal Party.
The Liberal Party raised two issues which are of legitimate concern. The first one related to the increase in the ability of the Commissioner for Housing to enter into contracts. Mr Kaine made the point that $1.5m seemed a little high, and he asked rhetorically whether I would approve the Secretary to the Department of Urban Services entering into such contracts without approval. Indeed, across my two portfolios I have in place a standing provision that for consultancies and those types of matters I want approval for matters over $50,000. So, the answer generally is no.
The Commissioner for Housing was established by a conscious decision of former governments as a statutory authority somewhat at arm's length from government. They deal in real estate in Canberra - an area of some sensitivity and an area where the community needs to know that the politician is not getting too closely involved in the buying and selling of houses. Under successive governments the practice has always been that Ministers do not make the decisions about which house to buy and which house to sell and how to move. One could move into fairly murky ground.
Mr Kaine: How many houses do you buy at $1.5m a throw?
MR CONNOLLY: If you were talking about a redevelopment proposal in one of the inner city areas, $1.5m would probably be only two or three houses. When we are talking about some of these schemes that the Housing Trust is moving towards, where we are redeveloping some of our properties or buying some properties adjacent to, say, two of our inner city properties and then entering into a joint venture arrangement with the private sector for urban redevelopment, while the Minister should have policy guidance of that and while that should be accountable here and through the Estimates Committee, the actual contracting process is, I think, a matter that is probably best left on an arm's length basis.
Mr Kaine: Certainly; but the Minister needs to be across the top of it.
MR CONNOLLY: The Minister certainly needs to be across the policy of moving into that type of redevelopment venture, and this Minister certainly is; but the actual process of letting the contracts is perhaps another matter.
Madam Speaker, the limit does reflect commercial realities, and I think that is the view of the private sector in this area. The fact is that since the limit was set in 1987 there have been steady increases in commercial property values of around 70 per cent. This is, I will credit you, taking it above a 70 per cent increase; but it is giving some scope for the future. Of course, any activities of the Housing Trust are accountable through this Assembly - through questions on notice, as Mr Cornwell knows, through regular use of questions, down to very intricate levels of detail, and through the Estimates Committee.
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