Page 411 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 2 March 1994
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When we look at the government housing cluster we can ask: Were the government homes built by a company owned in common with the developer and the real estate company? If so, it could be suggested that there was a further financial benefit in selling part of the estate for government housing under different requirements from those for private home buyers. The Minister for Housing, Mr Connolly, said in a televised interview, "I just do not accept that public housing reduces land values". To support his claim Mr Connolly quoted Red Hill as an expensive suburb that has quite a lot of public housing. Whether this claim is true or false is not the point.
The next question I ask is: Is it a practice for the ACT Government to wait until most of the prospective properties in new estates have been purchased before they purchase land for public housing? This certainly appears to be what has happened in this case. Was this a coincidence or was it planned? When did the Government first start negotiations to purchase land in the Gordon Valley Estate? We need to know the date of the first time.
What we have, in summary, is that many people have worked hard to buy properties in this estate. They were given certain assurances. There were covenants that they believed protected them. They feel betrayed by the vendor and certainly poorly let down by the ACT Government. I believe that these matters need to be fully investigated. The DPP, I suggest, is not going to investigate the Government's actions. We need to make sure that those actions are investigated; that the actions within departments are investigated. I have raised many questions, and many more need to be raised; but something must be done to right this injustice.
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (3.31): I guess that this MPI raises two issues: Firstly, should there be an inquiry or an investigation into the misleading claims; and, secondly, the general policy of the distribution of public housing in the ACT. I will address the second issue first, because I will address the first issue only very briefly. It is the policy of this Government, and it has been the policy of successive ACT governments, whether they be Labor or Liberal, that public housing be spread across all suburbs in Canberra. I will seek leave in a moment to table a document which, while it is in slightly small print, is quite readable. It is the latest print-out I have from the Housing Trust which shows the distribution of Housing Trust properties throughout the ACT. There are only a couple of suburbs where we do not have houses. For some reason we do not seem to have a house at Weetangera. We must address that. For some reason we do not seem to have a house at O'Malley.
Mr De Domenico: You could not afford one in O'Malley.
MR CONNOLLY: It may be a tad expensive. For some reason we do not have a house at Bruce.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Your phone will never stop ringing, Mr Attorney.
MR CONNOLLY: Yes, there will be lots of offers to sell. We do not have a house at Fyshwick, but nobody else does either. Basically, we have a distribution throughout the suburbs of Canberra that ranges from some quite high distributions in some surprisingly salubrious areas. In Barton and Parkes, where townhouse prices are quite high, the Housing Trust has 40 per cent of stock.
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