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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 3 Hansard (10 April) . . Page.. 882 ..

MRS CARNELL: The report I think Mr Osborne is talking about is the report that was undertaken last year. Mr Stefaniak has answered questions regularly in this place on the decision not to continue with that particular home lending scheme. The reason we have not continued with it, and what that report showed, was that it was put in place at a time when interest rates were high and when home affordability was very low. In other words, it was very difficult and very expensive for people to buy homes in the ACT. The reports we did get as a result of our inquiries into that area indicated that, with lower interest rates and significantly better affordability of homes in the ACT and the advent of Kick Start, the need for the scheme became significantly less at this time. Also, the potential exposure of the ACT Government was very high. In other words, as the number of loans decreased and the potential exposure of the Government to significant default provisions went up, the exposure of the Government became quite high.

From that perspective, we believed that it was appropriate to maintain those people who currently had loans from the ACT Government - so there is certainly no impact whatsoever on those people - but to discontinue the scheme while we have interest rates as low as they are and affordability as good as it is. The Government has always indicated that if those parameters change in the future a scheme of this nature may be reintroduced. But it was introduced by the Government when the parameters of home buying were significantly different.

MR OSBORNE: I ask a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. Chief Minister, will you table in the Assembly the report that was commissioned?

MR STEFANIAK: Perhaps I could assist there, Chief Minister.

Ms McRae: Two for the price of one.

MR STEFANIAK: There you go. You are lucky. Taking the Longer View I thought initially sounded like the name of a sports report I saw, Mr Osborne, but I understand what you are referring to now. There is one review, which I think members have been briefed on, that was done by the Commonwealth Bank, and that is something the Chief Minister and I have referred to on a number of occasions in relation to the risk review. There were some other internal documents which Housing had done a bit of work on, including, I think, one or two other consultancy reviews over probably an 18-month period. I think the one you refer to is a document that has not been finished and was in draft form and is effectively one of the working documents.

Housing and, through Housing, the Government have considered these various papers in relation to the HomeBuyer program over an 18-month period. As the Chief Minister has said, last year we became increasingly concerned in relation to the risk factor. On the other side of the coin were the very significant changes in the housing market, such as the availability of a lot of low interest loans, the freeing up of loans, the deals that people such as Aussie Home Loans and various other people who had entered the market could give, and the fact that it was very much a buyer's market. Those were matters that influenced the Government.

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