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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 13 Hansard (25 November) . . Page.. 4564 ..

Clause 7.

MR STANHOPE (Chief Minister, Attorney-General, Minister for Environment and Minister for Community Affairs) (11.03): Mr Speaker, I seek leave to move amendments 1 to 3 circulated in my name together.

Leave granted.

MR STANHOPE: I move amendments 1 to 3 circulated in my name together [see schedule 4 at page 4630].

Amendments agreed to.

Clause 7, as amended, agreed to.

Remainder of bill, by leave, taken as a whole and agreed to.

Bill, as amended, agreed to.

Affordable Housing Taskforce

Final report-government response

Debate resumed from 28 August 2003, on motion by Mr Wood:

MS DUNDAS (11.04): When the affordable housing taskforce reports were tabled I understand that the government was not intending to table a response, but I am glad to see that they have changed their mind and that we can have this debate about the government's response, as the response does give us a good idea of what action we can expect from the government.

Minister Wood has demonstrated far greater commitment than his predecessor did to public and affordable housing, and I do commend him for that. I know he understands the fundamental role of public and community housing as part of a safety net for low-income people living in our territory and the need for affordable private housing for less-well-off people who cannot or choose not to access public housing.

I was encouraged to see that most of the task force recommendations were accepted by the government, with only a minority noted. I am particularly glad that some of the task force recommendations have already been acted upon, such as the rental bonds loan scheme. It is good to see not only a community report and a government response but also the immediate implementation of some of those recommendations, which gives us some faith that these reports will be followed up on.

But I do have some reservations about the practicality of some of the recommendations that were put forward. The task force report had a strong emphasis on private sector involvement in the provision of affordable housing and this, of course, echoes the new provision in the most recent Commonwealth-state housing agreement that pushes the

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