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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 2 Hansard (29 February) . . Page.. 520 ..

MS McRAE (continuing):

as public sector housing. In his speech Mr Stefaniak spoke in particular about protecting the rights of public sector housing tenants and people in the ACT, and looking to the future management of all that stock. He announced a reference group that was to advise, and I think it would be useful if the Assembly were given fairly regular reports of what that reference group are looking at and where they are at in terms of their reports and their activities.

The Minister outlined three indicators as to how the success of the planning process for housing would be measured in the ACT. The measure of success will be the extent to which we have provided good housing choices, promoted livability and environmental sustainability, and ensured that the housing needs of Canberra's diverse population are met equitably and appropriately. What I would like to put on the agenda for discussion, both by this reference group that I have indicated Mr Stefaniak announced and by the community in general, is the place that a housing policy has in the promotion of harmony and wellbeing in our community, both for the community as a whole and for each of us individually.

We all know very well what a bad housing policy can do. A bad housing policy can create ghettos; it can create nightmares for tenants and their neighbours; it can create a community that does not care for the aged, or people with disabilities, or the unemployed. It can do this by labelling them all as second-class citizens in the nature of housing that is provided for people and the way that housing stock is managed. I do not say for one minute that this is what the management of the Housing Trust in the ACT has done; quite the contrary. The management of housing in the ACT has been quite good; but if we are to develop a housing strategy I think we must keep these social harmony and social equity issues at the forefront of our consideration.

These are the questions that I think should underpin all activity in housing: What effect will this have on our own neighbourhood? Would we like to live next to these people? What is it that people need in order to keep their houses to a proper standard? How do we get the mix of people right? These are not new questions at all to the Housing Trust. They have been dealing with them quite well for years. But as we move on to the new era that Mr Stefaniak outlined I would be very disappointed if this were not the focus of all our activity. Remember that this is our community, with people all living next to each other, and the decisions that can be made can have very dramatic effects on the wellbeing and the harmony of our own streets and suburbs.

The challenges that face housing provision were outlined by the Minister and they are quite complex. He provided in his speech not a bad summary of those major challenges. If he and his advisory body give them careful and thorough consideration they will provide the basis of a very good housing plan for the ACT. He also mentioned a study that is being done by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare on housing needs in the ACT. I think it would be very helpful to this Assembly if he were to provide a copy of that study to the Assembly. I welcome the debate that the Minister has begun, but I call on him again to keep the Assembly informed. I would like him to provide for us a list of all the members of the reference group that he mentioned that is now headed up by Judith Brine, and perhaps from time to time a report of their activities, studies and findings, and some idea of the work that they are doing and at what point we could be engaged in that either through the Assembly or with the general public.

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