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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 12 Hansard (21 November) . . Page.. 3944 ..

Ms McRae: Mr Speaker, with the greatest of respect, Mr Stefaniak has indicated that he will speak. Perhaps we can take your advice on that in the interim whilst we listen to Mr Stefaniak.

MR SPEAKER: I would seek clarification. Proceed, Mr Stefaniak.

MR STEFANIAK (Minister for Education and Training and Minister for Housing and Family Services) (11.26): Mr Speaker, taking up a point Mr Humphries raised - it applies to public housing; it applies to planning; it applies to anything in this city - no change at all is not an option. There are a couple of points in the Greens' motion especially which just simply indicate no change at all, which I think is quite unrealistic. A lot will come out of this inquiry, and that is good because it is important that people are consulted. There is a plan on the table that gives residents something to talk to and there has been a lot of discussion generated as a result. A lot more will be generated as a result of this committee inquiry and as a result of further discussions with the Ainslie community and affected people.

I think it is unrealistic and quite inappropriate for the Greens to include in their motion a call for a moratorium on any further sales of housing owned by the ACT Housing Trust in Ainslie until a plan has been completed. Ms McRae has acknowledged that, and rightly so. It is important that ACT Housing, as it did under the previous administration and as it will do under this administration, continue its program of selling and redeveloping properties. Properties are sold right across Canberra. Everyone is aware of the proposed number of sales for this year. To arbitrarily stop the sales in one suburb would be quite wrong. It has been said here on many occasions that it is very important, given the needs of our tenants, that we build new properties, and properties more appropriate to their needs. One of the things the discussions in the community have brought up is the needs of Housing Trust tenants, especially the older tenants. The senior citizens groups have come up with a number of inputs to this particular plan. Senior citizens feel that some of the housing proposed by ACT Housing - the units, the APUs, that type of housing - is far more appropriate for older people than having a three-bedroom home on a quarter-acre block, or, in some instances, even more. Appropriate housing is terribly important in all of this.

MR SPEAKER: Order! It being 45 minutes after the commencement of Assembly business, the debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 77.

Motion (by Mr Humphries) agreed to:

That the time allotted to Assembly business be extended by 30 minutes.

MR STEFANIAK: There are other factors, too, of course. Ainslie, like other inner city areas, presents ACT Housing with some other demands, such as high maintenance and ageing and underutilised stock that would need to be either sold or retained in the rental portfolio, through refurbishment, if cost effective. The alternative is redevelopment to better enable consistency between stock type and client demands. Those things are terribly important, Mr Speaker, and, accordingly, I think subparagraph (1)(c) of the Greens' amendment is completely inappropriate.

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