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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 9 Hansard (28 August) . . Page.. 3396 ..
MR STANHOPE (continuing):
In conversation now, with Mrs Dunne and the Liberal Party, the Liberal Party has some concerns. I wish to take further time to discuss with the Liberals their concerns around Ms Tucker's amendments-confessing that I did not look as closely as I might have. I am foreshadowing it would be the government's desire that the matter be adjourned after moving to clause 1, so that I may have those discussions-and in order to talk with Ms Tucker about her concerns in relation to the extent of the provision.
I accept responsibility for this but, as a result of my actions, I think I may have confused some members around the government's intention in relation to the amendments. I apologise for that.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle
Detail stage
Clause 1.Debate (on motion by Mrs Dunne ) adjourned to the next sitting.
Affordable Housing Taskforce
Final report
Debate resumed from 8 May 2003, on motion by Mr Wood:That the Assembly takes note of the paper.
MRS DUNNE (4.46): Affordable housing is an issue that is becoming more and more prominent. The idea of owning one's home is extricably bound up with notions of the great Australian dream and our cherished philosophy of fairness. It was not so long ago that those opposite were hostile to such ideas-seeing home ownership as a terrible weakening of the class war.
Quite charitably, I am prepared to accept that this view no longer underpins Labor Party thinking. Nevertheless, at the same time, I am concerned that Labor, here in the ACT and in other states and territories, is sitting on its hands while the great Australian dream recedes for many Australians.
I do not have to remind those opposite of the unfortunate words spoken by John Dedman when, in a moment of anger, he dismissed efforts to make home ownership more affordable as creating a race of little capitalists. It was a phrase that burned the soul of one of the great Liberal leaders of the last century-Sir Henry Bolte, the Premier of Victoria. On coming to power in Victoria in 1955, in what was to be a record term of government in Victoria, Mr Bolte, as he then was, never failed to wrestle political mileage from Dedman's unfortunate words.
Taking over from Labor in 1955 in a state that was moribund and backward, Henry Bolte looked not to the light on the hill but to a house on the hill. Bolte never wavered from his
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