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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 10 Hansard (3 September) . . Page.. 2978 ..

MS REILLY (continuing):

Housing assistance in Australia has been based on the principle that all Australians have a right to affordable, secure and appropriate housing, and this has been a central principle and right for all Australians. This is the vitally important issue about which we on this side of the house have been talking. We are concerned about this essential element of Australian life, and we are concerned that this could be lost with the Howard Liberal Government's scramble to save money and the support that we have noted being given by the Carnell Liberal Government in the ACT. If we lose this basic tenet of Australian life and ACT life we will be the losers; it is the ACT community that will be the losers. We will lose that important social capital and we will lose that stability that public housing assistance gives to this community.

The previous Labor Government recognised the change that came through the globalisation of the economy and acknowledged that the provision of housing would need to change. They also acknowledged the need to change the relationship of housing to the accessibility of other services, including the access to employment opportunities. Through this, they looked at reviewing housing assistance delivery in Australia. The previous Labor Government recognised the importance of housing for all Australians and initiated reviews such as the national housing strategy. They also introduced programs such as the better cities program. Better cities, a comprehensive urban infrastructure and planning program, addressed issues around the provision of integrated planning and the ageing urban infrastructure in Australia. It provided opportunities through new and revitalised neighbourhoods, with an emphasis on the quality housing infrastructure that also recognised environmental imperatives of the 1990s in Australia.

Of course, better cities was immediately cut by the new Liberal Government. They appear to take a short-sighted view of housing needs of Australians and appear not to want to encourage cooperative developments which include all spheres of government working together. Better cities also included the private sector; so, there is no fear about using the private sector in public housing. A good example of a better cities project is Condamine Court in Northbourne Avenue in the ACT which, fortunately for the ACT community and those tenants of Condamine Court, was started before this new Federal Liberal Government came in, because if it had not started we would have lost that money, the $16m. We also would have lost those new, refurbished units for those public housing tenants.

There will be many positive housing outcomes for the ACT through this project. It is one that those opposite have been happy to discuss quite regularly and to show up as an example. There will be refurbished units for the public housing tenants who wish to live there, and they will be living in a convenient place that is close to facilities in Civic and Dickson. There will also be opportunities for private tenants to purchase housing in that area. There will be many benefits across the board for the ACT community.

You just wonder about the short-sightedness of this Federal Liberal Government in cutting the better cities program. They appear to have the same tunnel vision for other public housing programs. The delivery of public housing and the support programs in Australia has been through the mechanism of Commonwealth-State housing agreements.

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