Page 1955 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 15 June 1994
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
MR CORNWELL (11.54), by leave: Madam Speaker, I think the Assembly should appreciate that the objection of the Government to this is simply because it was put forward by somebody other than themselves. What is being said here is nonsensical. The fact is that it was never our intention that the Housing Trust should see its stock being decimated in specific areas. You have already conceded, Mr Lamont, that people are entitled to buy their Housing Trust properties. The arbitrary 10-year period - it was arbitrary - was imposed without rhyme or reason, except to the extent that Housing Trust properties had not been for sale for a number of years. The Minister and the trust, at the time when it was decided to reintroduce sales, were a little concerned that the demand might prove too great for the trust's stock, thus reducing the amount of stock available, Mr Lamont, so a term of 10 years was applied in a quite arbitrary fashion to judge the demand. It stayed at 10 years for some time. Last year your Government reduced it from 10 years to eight years.
The question that I pose to the Assembly is this: Why is eight years any different from five years under such circumstances? I have not had a sensible response. I have not had a reasonable response to this question. All that we see is that the Government is determined to hold onto housing stock, which it manages badly, Madam Speaker.
Mrs Grassby: That is your opinion.
MR CORNWELL: Yes, and it is the opinion of most Housing Trust tenants, Mrs Grassby. Why, otherwise, did we have this flim-flam yesterday in the budget about how they are going to make all sorts of improvements in terms of improved services? I read from Mr Lamont's statement here that they are initiating a review and, guess what? They are going to establish client service teams which will be able to respond to queries, applications and requests for services such as public housing allocations, rent rebates and private rental assistance. On it goes. The point is that you have conceded that the management of Housing Trust properties is not good, Mr Lamont. You say that action will be taken to repair their homes when they notify district office. All of this is going on. The fact is that this is an empire which this Government wishes to hang onto at all costs.
Mr Lamont: You wish to discriminate against 80 per cent or 85 per cent of Housing Trust tenants.
MR CORNWELL: I do wish that you would get your facts sorted out. You said 75 per cent earlier. Let me correct you, Mr Lamont. At the moment some 85 per cent of trust tenants are in what we would call welfare housing. In fact, we are looking at 15 per cent - - -
Mr Lamont: "Welfare housing". Here we go! That is what you would call it.
MR CORNWELL: We are looking at 15 per cent of people who are in what we would call public housing and therefore are eligible to purchase these properties. I do not see the difference between eight years and five years as a bone of contention. It is simply that you wish to deny people this option. We will be quite happy to fight you on it at the next election.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .