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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 12 Hansard (21 November) . . Page.. 4117 ..

MS REILLY: Mrs Carnell, may I finish? You might agree with what I say. The money for Condamine Court has come from the better cities program. The Condamine Court redevelopment must be the most announced project that you have. Every time we turn around we hear of it yet again. Announce it once, announce it twice and, if you can, bring it up again. Condamine Court probably has been mentioned at every sitting since I have been here.

Mr Hird: Praise the Minister. Give the Minister a pat on the back.

MS REILLY: I would like to give the Minister who initiated it a pat on the back - Mr Brian Howe. Better cities money is seen as almost saving the housing budget in terms of propping up capital works this year. What did the Federal Liberal Government do as soon as it got in? It cut the better cities program. You would never believe from this ACT Liberal Government that the better cities program was not the best thing since sliced bread. It seems to be propping up the capital works budget this year. It is mentioned regularly. Maybe we can expect an announcement about Condamine Court again soon. It must be opening soon. I was taken to see it the other day and it is coming along apace. It is a very good project. I would not deny that. Some of the aspects that I think Mr De Domenico mentioned are also very good.

It has one problem, of course. There will be a reduced number of units for public tenants in the finished project. I know the advantages of selling off some and having mixed developments, but we will still be reducing the number of public housing tenants who are living in that area when it is all completed. That is probably the biggest minus of that project. We can be thankful that at least some public housing tenants will be living in an area that is close to services, close to transport and close to the centre of town. Not all public tenants are being pushed to the edge of the city. If you listened to some of the discussion on Ainslie and the discussion last Sunday at the public meeting, you gained the impression from the housing bureaucrats, unnamed because we do not name bureaucrats, that without Ainslie - - -

Mr Berry: Leave that to Mr De Domenico.

MS REILLY: That is right. One was left with the impression that if we did not sell up Ainslie there was no way that we could meet our capital works commitment in housing this year. This is extremely worrying when you think about what the suburb of Ainslie is and the amount of public housing there, which I think is a credit to the ACT community. In that suburb you have people of various ages, public tenants, private tenants and home owners, looking at the development of their suburb and not getting into small enclaves. Some people living in Ainslie were the first residents of some of the houses. I think these people should be cared for and not left feeling insecure, wondering when the Housing Trust is going to sell their houses. I realise it is now called ACT Housing. One of the other bureaucrats who work for ACT Housing was very sensitive about the fact that it was called the Housing Trust. It was a very interesting meeting. Obviously, people who have not had a connection with ACT Housing over a long period forget that a lot of people knew it as the Housing Trust and quite happily refer to it as the Housing Trust.

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