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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 12 Hansard (5 December) . . Page.. 3640 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

With regard to the select committee's report, the government has agreed or agreed in principle to 12 of the committee's recommendations. It has agreed in part with a further recommendation and not agreed with a recommendation about access by social housing tenants to the Essential Services Review Committee. It is proposed to better utilise the comprehensive appeal arrangements that already exist.

The focus of our changes is on targeting public housing to those in greatest need in the community, continuing to offer support to all public tenants while they need housing assistance, continuing to offer support to all public tenants for the periods that they need housing assistance; to improve the equity between tenants in households in terms of their rent contributions, and seeking out administrative efficiencies that can be put back into improving the quality of housing and customer services. We have an obligation, with limited resources, to provide services to those people in our community who are less advantaged, including our homeless, people suffering domestic violence, people with special housing needs and indigenous people.

The main elements of the reforms now to be implemented from 1 January 2001 include: offering leases to new tenants - and existing tenants entering new tenancy agreements - that would be reviewed every three years, or five years in the case of people on fixed incomes; minimising the work disincentives for public tenants by setting the lease renewal eligibility criteria at 10 per cent higher than the entry level criteria; increasing the asset eligibility criteria to $40,000, up from $20,000; streamlining the applicant list in order to allocate the limited public housing stock to those in greatest need; and requiring existing residents, like tenants and other residents, to pay 25 per cent of their income towards the household contribution to the rent payment.

In announcing the implementation of this government's reforms, I should remind members of this Assembly that in report No 5 of 1998 the Auditor - General stated that ACT Housing was missing out on an estimated $2 million in rent per year by not increasing the rent policy for residents to the 25 per cent level applying to tenants. While the actual level of lost rent may be lower at between $1 million and $1.5 million, it is significant and the opportunity to implement such a change has been delayed for 12 months. As soon as the policy change is implemented, this additional rent income will benefit all tenants in public and community - managed housing through improved property and tenancy services.

Other reforms were originally proposed but have since been modified as a result of the committee's report. For example, we will continue to provide arrangements for rental bonds and minimum rental payments by public tenants will be maintained at $20.

Mr Speaker, I would also like to inform this Assembly that, since taking responsibility for the housing portfolio, I have announced a revised allocation policy that offers greater flexibility to tenants in the size of homes they can be allocated. This actions two of the select committee's recommendations; namely, recommendation 13 concerning the accommodation needs of single people, and recommendation 14, which sought a more flexible allocation policy for parents with shared children responsibilities.

In implementing the reform, the government is mindful of the need to review and monitor the impacts of the changed policies and I will be making a reference to the Housing Advisory Committee to undertake this role in relation to the matters of security

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