Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 5 Hansard (6 May) . . Page.. 1546 ..

MR WOOD (continuing):

At least the Burnie Court people know that they have a future. The bulldozers are not waiting down the street, as I once speculated on behalf of residents. They know that there is a future there; there are going to be some improvements. It is a wonderful location. It has enormous potential. I think that concentrated work there could see it become a fine example of what public housing can do.

I want to emphasise a point about access to private housing. I have done it before and I thank the Minister again for the cooperation of his officers when I refer people to them as I mediate with people who need housing. Over and over again, people simply cannot get access to public housing, but at the present moment you cannot get private housing. You cannot get it, it is not available, as the situation is so tight. There was a scheme whereby ACT Housing was able to lend money for a bond. Today the bonds can be as much as $600 to $1,000 and a lot of the people that I talk to simply do not have that amount of money. There was a scheme to lend money but that is now gone. I think that is a shame because that was a way of helping people in a way that might have been able to get them through the door of private accommodation, difficult as it is. I think that is a real disappointment and it is a real blow to a number of people. It has not been so much as to help a vast number of people, but it has been important.

I want to say something about the disability sector. Let it be acknowledged that there is $1m extra in that sector and I congratulate Mr Moore for that work. But on Mr Moore's figures, there is still a shortfall of $4m immediately identifiable in that sector. Again, let me compliment Mr Moore for putting out a draft strategy on disability that spells out very clearly and accurately where the shortfall is. I have never seen a strategy from government that is quite as explicit and I compliment him for it. My remarks will be softened because of that, because I would encourage that sort of detail. A couple of his earlier draft strategies in other areas could learn from that.

I share Mr Moore's disappointment that the Federal Government did not come to the party two or three weeks ago at a ministerial meeting. (Extension of time granted) On his figures, there is a shortfall of at least $4m and somehow we have to handle that. This is the neediest area in the ACT. The demand there is most urgent, most problematic, and somehow we have to handle that. I await the review of that draft strategy so that Mr Moore can come up with more ideas. I was a little concerned at one point in that draft strategy in that it seemed to be wanting to throw some part of that problem back to the community. It will not work like that. The community is already exerting itself in more than full measure to care for the disabled in this community, particularly the families of those who are disabled.

The Chief Minister, in her usual style, has been critical of the Opposition and of the earlier Labor budgets. I suppose that is the way that these places tend to work. I want to point this out: Earlier Labor governments were highly responsible in the way they worked. Mr Berry and I are the only remnants of those earlier Labor governments. I recall the graphs that were presented to us at each budget deliberation showing where we were and where we had to be in 1991, 1992 or 1993 by the time those transitional funds were phased out. We observed that. We reduced our expenditures and we increased our revenues in accordance with that. Every year we met that target. We took some hard decisions. In fact, it was in those early years that the Follett and Kaine

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .