Page 164 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 23 February 1994
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improvements that have been made, nothing in this legislation prevents them from doing that. The discretion of the Government to sell to anybody, at any time, under any circumstances, is not removed. If Mr Connolly wants to sell a house to a little old lady in Lyneham at half the market price, he is entitled to do so. He can do so.
Mr Connolly: You would then suggest that the little old lady in Lyneham was a Labor mate, and you would be alleging scandal.
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Connolly is going off on the fantasy tangent here. The fact is that nothing in this Bill touches on that question. Nothing in this Bill prevents you from doing that. But, if certain circumstances are met, as set out in this Bill, there is a right to purchase, and that is the point. If the tenant does not want to pay the full market price, if the tenant wants to pay less than that and ask for improvements, the tenant can go to the Government and say, "I would like to buy my house and I would like you to give me that house on the basis that I pay less than the market price, to reflect the improvements that I have effected". That can happen. There is no problem with that. This Bill does not outlaw that. What it does do is create a further circumstance whereby the tenant can purchase the place if they pay the full market price. So nobody's capacity to buy or to sell is being limited here; you are merely offering a right in certain delineated circumstances.
Madam Speaker, my party believes very firmly that it is better to provide the opportunity for citizens of the ACT, indeed the whole of Australia, to own their own homes if that is their wish. That is a fundamental part not only of my party's philosophy but also of the belief, I think, of most Australians - that home ownership is a desirable goal which should be encouraged and facilitated by government wherever possible. We are not arguing the principle in this case. The Government already makes available homes to people who have been in their tenancies for eight years. We are talking substantially about reducing that only by three years. The fact of life is that that is not going to make any major change to either the composition of the housing stock or the nature of the mix of housing tenants; it is going to make no difference whatsoever.
Mr Lamont: Nonsense! What absolute nonsense!
MR HUMPHRIES: You know that it is not going to make any difference.
Mr Lamont: It is nonsense.
MR HUMPHRIES: If Mr Lamont can demonstrate how that can occur, that is fine. Let us bear in mind that you are able to repurchase other properties with the proceeds of your sale, and you are able to retain substantially the same balance of tenants within your housing properties. Where is the difference? How does this Bill change that? It does not change it.
I have not heard the Government state its belief in the desirability of people being able to own their own homes. I have not heard that being stated by this Government or this Minister at any stage, and that disturbs me. Although obviously it is vitally important to retain public housing for those who require it, it is also extremely important to provide the opportunity for those who wish to leave that system to do so on reasonable terms. If a tenant has been in
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