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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 10 Hansard (3 September) . . Page.. 2985 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

Under the proposed new arrangements, there is no plan to do away with public housing, only to provide greater choice for tenants who may choose to use their subsidies to rent in the private market.

The ACT Government, Madam Deputy Speaker, remains committed to supporting Canberrans in need. However, the Government also does have an obligation to ensure that public housing stock is being used to the maximum benefit. The reforms to housing assistance may present the Government with an opportunity to better match stock with client need - something that was spoken about at length in the debate last week. The optimum amount of public housing available in the ACT in the longer term has not yet been determined and will depend on the extent to which tenants choose public over private housing options. Current and future public housing tenants should, however, be completely reassured that the ACT Government will enter into the negotiations with the Commonwealth on the basis of achieving fair and equitable outcomes for all Canberrans - something I think our State and Territory counterparts would be doing on behalf of their States and the Northern Territory.

The success of the new housing assistance arrangements will depend on the Commonwealth winning support from the States, which will hinge on the quantum and quality of the Commonwealth's funding offer. That is terribly important, because the whole principle in relation to this was that the States would not be disadvantaged, that the Commonwealth would supply the same amount of money as it supplies now and that the system would be simplified to enable the States and Territories to have more options in terms of managing their stock. That is terribly important to us in terms of things like maintenance, because under the current agreement, the old agreement, it is restrictive. Certainly, there are restrictions in terms of maintenance which, with our ageing stock, is an important consideration to us.

Madam Deputy Speaker, it is ACT Housing's policy to continue to provide public housing across the city in all but a few of the most expensive suburbs where it is not at present. It is our policy to avoid concentrations of low-income tenants. I think this is a feature of Canberra. You would note, in terms of any new houses and new units and stock that have been built in recent times, it is impossible to tell whether they are public housing or private housing; you simply cannot, because we have gone away from the old Radburn style and the classic govie style of houses in the 1960s and 1970s which is different from other stock. It is now impossible to tell. We build very good, quality products.

ACT Housing is in the process of adjusting its stockholding in a number of ways. The upgrading, sale and purchase of public housing stock will continue this financial year, with the emphasis on making the best use of resources to meet the needs of our ACT Housing customers. We must remember that 50 per cent of our stock is basic three-bedroom homes, and many of our tenants now require something completely different to that. A survey being conducted of current public housing tenants includes a question designed to help assess the number of tenants who will choose to stay in public housing after the longer-term reforms are introduced.

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