Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 9 Hansard (28 August) . . Page.. 2667 ..

MS REILLY (continuing):

as they are in other places in Australia, to move to the margins, to move to areas where there are no services. Even though we have such a strong public housing sector, there is still a waiting list. It means that there is still a need for public housing, so we need to be very cautious about looking at what we do with this great asset.

A number of studies have been done within Australia and overseas in relation to housing-related poverty. If people are forced to pay a considerable part of their income for public housing or for any type of housing, then they are not able to meet other basic needs such as food and heating. They are not able to access health and other services. That is why it is important that we maintain a strong public housing sector. People will know what their rental costs will be. They will not suddenly find themselves paying 40 or 50 per cent of their income in rent. They will know that rent will be 20 to 25 per cent of their income, the amount that it has been found should ensure that people are not living in poverty after paying for housing. Obviously, the Commonwealth Government has considered this. Of course, it was a Labor government initiative to look at increasing rental assistance. It is very pleasing that there are at least some Labor policies which this Government is keen to maintain. Usually, we hear that any Labor policies should be immediately put down.

In the ACT rental assistance has been an extremely good program, but what are we going to do in the future? If we cannot move people into public housing, what is going to happen to those in the private rental market? Yesterday, in her response to the Commonwealth budget, Mrs Carnell said that there was a surplus of housing in the ACT. In fact, she said that there was a current excess supply of housing. She said:

In view of the current excess supply of ... housing in the ACT and likely changes to the Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement that will mean a shift towards rental assistance, we will be able to absorb this cut in housing grants and still maintain a supply of public housing at well above the national average levels.

If you look at the HIA figures for June 1996 that were reported in the Canberra Times of 19 August, you will find that there is a vacancy rate in rental housing of 3.4 per cent. This is a very low vacancy rate. This is not a vacancy rate that will allow people who have difficulty in obtaining private accommodation to access such accommodation. A vacancy rate as low as 3.4 per cent is almost getting to the stage where you could say that there were no vacancies at all.

By cutting the public housing budget and by selling off public housing we are going to push more and more people into private rental accommodation, even though in June 1996 there were very few vacancies. Looking at that figure combined with the fact that housing prices have slumped, I would also suggest that there are not likely to be more vacancies coming on stream. Housing starts have also been reduced, so where is all this private rental housing going to come from?

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .