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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 4 Hansard (3 April) . . Page.. 1376 ..

MS DUNDAS (continuing):

I hope that the amendment and the amended motion are supported by the whole Assembly, and that we will soon see how serious the government is about implementing its election platform to increase the supply of affordable housing in the ACT. We will then have some idea of what steps we need to be taking to make affordable housing in the ACT a reality.

MRS DUNNE (4.28): I rise to speak to the motion and to indicate the opposition's support of Ms Tucker's amendment. The poverty task force established during the term of the Carnell government was of the view that one of the keys to alleviating poverty was the provision of secure housing. Over the years we have seen an increase in the incidence of housing stress and a decrease in housing affordability. The government, to its credit, set up a task force, with wide representation across government, commercial and community sectors, to look at this very vital issue.

This is one of those sorts of things that affect the entire community. We are not just talking about people in need of government support, because when you do not have affordable housing across the spectrum it means that more and more people fall through the gaps and need to be picked up in the safety net of government housing. If we can provide affordable housing in the private rental market, in the private purchasing market, there will be less stress on the government housing market and, therefore, more resources will be available to address people who are really in need.

Both ACT Housing and Community Housing do very important work in addressing the needs of people in the material sense by providing shelter and especially, in the case of Community Housing, in addressing concomitant needs. We should be doing as much as possible to ensure that as few people as possible need to rely on government housing; that they can find their own way and be self-reliant. But there is increasing evidence that people in the ACT are less self-reliant in respect of housing. The increasing demands that ACT Housing is experiencing and the number of times that shelters offering support services have to turn people away show that there is an increasing amount of housing stress. But it is not just housing stress at that end of the market-it is all the way through. Unless you are extremely affluent, most people in this town find it difficult to meet their housing needs.

We have to look at taking a holistic approach. As Ms Dundas has said, we have to look at not just the entry costs-the cost of purchasing a house or the cost of renting-but the whole of life costs of housing. We have to look at not just what you pay out every fortnight, whether it be in rent or mortgage, but also whether your house is energy efficient. We have to look at how far you have to travel by car or other forms of transport, and whether you have access to efficient and affordable transport. The issue of rates is important as well. Whether you are a home owner, a home purchaser or renter, rates affect you. There is a possibility that the differential rates system proposal that is now before us could have an even bigger impact on housing affordability.

Many other aspects of government policy militate against affordable housing. At the moment, the Planning and Environment Committee, of which I am the chairman, is looking at draft variation 200, which is working through the process of limiting in many places the possibilities for densification and urban consolidation. This would mean that

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