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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 7 Hansard (25 June) . . Page.. 2135 ..

MS REILLY (continuing):

valued just before, just in hope, and it was $155,000. The sale price was actually $151,000. Maybe the revalued price is different from the reserve price, or above it, because this is less than even the revalued price. There is another one here, in a less classy market, where the book price was $105,000. That is what the Territory thinks is an asset. They revalued it to $100,000, and then they sold it for $83,000. So, there was a total overall loss of $21,000.

What they have been doing this year is selling houses that people want. We have a waiting list of 4,000-plus people, which has grown in this year. It has actually got higher since January. It is interesting to note that in Tuggeranong, if you are waiting for a three-bedroom house, the waiting list has actually gone up quite considerably in a number of months. So, you are waiting five to six years, and this has increased in this year. But you will also notice that, in Kambah, which is one of the suburbs within the Tuggeranong area, they sold 23 houses - and not only that; they sold some of those houses at below the valuation. One was $100,000, and it was sold at under valuation. The valuation was $90,000 to $95,000, and it was sold for $82,000, making a loss of $18,000.

Mr Osborne: It is a great market at the moment, Marion; I can tell you.

MS REILLY: It is a really great market. So, you would think they would be buying, would you not? But they are selling. They have made losses of up to $29,000 out in Kambah, where people are waiting for years to get a house.

Let me talk quickly about the capital works budget. I think it was unfortunate that it was not given greater scrutiny. This year, we have $34m in capital works, $22m of which is new works. Very little is known about what it is going to be spent on. Maybe they will be out buying houses with their money.

I think it is unfortunate that housing has had to wear so many of the problems that have been experienced with balancing the budget in the ACT. It is extremely unfortunate that it has had to wear the majority of the money, in relation to paying the State financial contribution. It is even more unfortunate that we have a situation where it is a buyer's market for housing and Housing is out there selling frantically at great loss. I will look with great interest to see what the revaluation is going to be, because I find that, just looking at some of the revaluations made to allow houses to be sold, we have lost, and are losing, a very big Territory asset.

MR SPEAKER: Order! The member's time has expired.

MS TUCKER (6.15): I would also like to make a couple of comments on housing. I support a lot of the comments that Ms Reilly has just made. Despite getting back $5.4m, there have still been large cuts to the housing budget over the past two years. In fact, the housing budget still had to bear the entire burden of the Commonwealth black hole contribution, for the second year running. The end of the rent relief scheme is very concerning for accessibility to housing by lower-income earners, particularly at a time when access to public housing is being reduced. There is, as Ms Reilly said, a very long waiting list for public housing, and I cannot see how that is going to improve, unless we see a change of approach from this Government.

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