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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 4 Hansard (9 April) . . Page.. 866 ..

MRS CROSS (continuing):

Mr Speaker, let us put some of the current problems facing public housing into some kind of perspective, lest those critical of the former Liberal government are tempted into even more criticism.

Firstly, the waiting lists: in 1963, the population of Canberra reached 80,000, for the first time. The public housing waiting list peaked to 5,374, with an average waiting time of over three years. While the circumstances are somewhat different between then and now, they make an interesting comparison to today.

A more interesting comparison, however, can be seen in the area of evictions. In 1983 the Minister for Territories and Local Government, Tom Uren, began a policy of no evictions under any circumstances. I trust the government notes this example, because they were hairy-chested in this area during the election, and may be tempted to apply this principle to their policy of security of tenure.

Before the 1983 edict against evictions, rent arrears hovered at just over 200,000 per year. Within two years of implementing a no-evictions approach, that figure increased six-fold, because public housing tenants simply stopped paying their rent. Before the minister changed his mind in 1985, 3,800 out of 11,000 tenants, owing a total of $1.2 million, were in arrears.

I trust the minister for housing has learned from this example, and the experience of the former Follett administration, in which he was also a minister, where their approach to evictions was weak-to the point of being non-existent.

At self-government in 1989, the ACT joined a nationwide undertaking, in the form of the Commonwealth-state housing agreement, to apply a set of consistent principles regarding public housing. The first ACT government inherited a large stock of public housing that was ageing, required high levels of maintenance, and was built in areas which no longer suited the demographic needs of the community.

Some early public housing tenants have subsequently purchased their homes, some have purchased other homes, some have chosen not to move and to rightfully remain where they live. At the time of self-government, only 65 per cent of public housing tenants were needs based. There has been a considerable change since then, especially since 1995, and I understand that figure has risen to currently about 80 per cent.

The former Liberal government was active in the area of public housing because they inherited an absolute shambles. Tenants had been badly neglected by Labor. Some were found to have paid no rent for several years and, as a consequence, owed many thousands of dollars in arrears. Housing stock failed to match the changing needs of tenants, a feature also addressed, as a priority, by the former government.

Throughout this entire time-61/2 years-Labor was critical of every move the former Liberal government made. However, it failed to offer any answers, other than that they would fix it.

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