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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 12 Hansard (21 November) . . Page.. 4120 ..

MS REILLY (continuing):

The last point that I want to discuss is Kick Start. There is no way that you can discuss the housing budget for 1996-97 without discussing Kick Start.

Mr De Domenico: It is a great concept.

MS REILLY: It may be. Quite often there is a big gap between concept and fruition.

Ms McRae: It is a lack of imagination, Ms Reilly.

MS REILLY: I have the imagination to see it happening, but there seems to be a big black - - -

Mr De Domenico: It is all happening.

MS REILLY: How many people have taken it up, Mr De Domenico?

Mr De Domenico: I do not know. The Minister will tell you in a minute.

MS REILLY: It is a deposit gap assistance program, as Mr Lilley told us at the Estimates Committee hearings. It is a quite different program from the old housing loans. It involves $2.5m that is generously going to one bank in this town. That is one of the very concerning parts. There was no tender process for the decision as to which financial institution would have the benefits of this program.

Mr De Domenico: Do you agree with the decision or do you not?

MS REILLY: I am talking about the fact that you have a program involving $2.5m, as you have told us so many times, and there was no tender process for deciding which financial institution should have it.

Mr De Domenico: It does not go to the banks. It goes to individuals. The banks do not get the $2.5m. They give out the money; they do not take it back.

MS REILLY: The banks will be getting the benefit of those additional 500 customers, if 500 people take it up. If 500 eligible public housing tenants take up the opportunity of Kick Start there will be 500 additional customers for this financial institution. That is a nice little earner, I would suggest. It would be interesting to know at the moment how many people are interested in purchasing the public housing house that they are currently living in, or looking at some of the other really terrific bargains, or buying a new house. I think it is going to be fascinating to look at what jobs can be allocated to this program when we review it in February, which is not very far away. It will be interesting to see what happens with Kick Start in February. I think it is such a shift, such a change in the style of loans, that it needs very close looking at. Of course, we could raise the housing loans program that has been under review for so many months. We wait, not with bated breath because it is too dangerous, for the results of that review. When was it due? Was it not about September? We do need that review because those loans are offered to a completely different group of people.

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