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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 12 Hansard (7 December) . . Page.. 3870 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

you why it is that we are not going to be able to reach that ideological position. I agree with the ideology, but I will explain why and how I move away from the ideology.

The Commonwealth has diverted housing assistance from public housing to rent assistance for private rental accommodation. We therefore have a multiple system of housing assistance across governments and we operate within that system. According to my advice, to have a public housing system that allocates property to all people, current tenants and the applicants on the waiting list - in other words, the ideologically correct position that we would all like to be in - would require the appropriation of another $400 million. That is what would be needed. I will tell you how we got that figure.

I will be a bit more conservative: it would require up to $400 million. That is what would be needed to take 2,200 people and house them under the average cost of housing in the area. The average cost of our properties is $185,000. Take two - thirds of that or three - quarters of it; call it $300 million: the reality is that the ideological position that we would like to be in is not available to us. This level of funding simply could not be sustained. Where would we get it from, Ms Tucker? Would we take it from policing or health? We would have to take it from somewhere. The ACT community would not support that, certainly where some tenants actually do not need our support.

Unlike what some people may suggest, the government does not intend to change the entitlements of existing public tenants to remain in the public housing system forever, unless they move to another property, which is a matter that Ms Tucker's amendment suggests that we review and I am certainly prepared to look at that aspect. New tenants will be aware of the rules from the time they enter public housing. The rules will be more flexible when their eligibility is reassessed in three years time, with a higher income limit of 10 per cent being applied; so there will be some flexibility built into them there. Tenants who need smaller accommodation will be assisted with the costs of relocation.

I would like to summarise, Mr Deputy Speaker. If we did not have a public housing system that targets those people in greatest need of housing, we would have failed the most vulnerable in our community. We certainly would not have failed public tenants, as we will have a system that supports them with affordable housing during those periods that they need the support. We then offer them home ownership by buying their government house, for they will have secured their future education and employment and then be able to move on.

I would hate to have to have a system where the story goes according to the following examples: a public tenant who has accumulated significant assets, has gained a stable position and receives a good wage or salary remains in public housing while a single mother with two children who receives only a Centrelink payment sits on an applicant list waiting for public rental property; a mother with young children who has escaped a home environment of domestic violence waits in a refuge until another public tenant who no longer needs the public housing decides to stay; a public tenant with no dependants continues to live in a three, four or even five - bedroom public rental property while the parents of three or four young children continue to sit on the applicant list, living in smaller accommodation, waiting for a larger home; or an older couple pay 25 per cent of their combined age pension as their rent payment while a tenant who has a resident living with them and who earns a good wage or salary continues to pay 25 per cent of the tenant's income and only 10 per cent of the resident's income as rent.

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