Page 1812 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 7 June 2006
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
were made homeless. The present waiting period for priority one housing is 12 to 18 months. For people further down the list, it is indefinite. While, for the residents, moving into public houses is the last thing they want, for ACT Housing, having to do more with less, having another 100 to 200 people needing a home would turn the crisis into a catastrophe.
I turn to the rushed and improvident transfer of ownership of the park from the ACT Commissioner for Housing to Koomarri in 2000. All information publicly available indicates that the long-stay park was making a small profit for ACT Housing before it gave the park to Koomarri in 2000. The ACT government announced its decision to sell the park in 1999. There was considerable action by residents and dispute in the Assembly at the time. The existing caretaker joined with a few residents to make an offer to buy the park from the ACT government. I understand that his attempts to talk to the minister and to find out the proper process were unsuccessful.
Bruce Mackenzie, former CEO of Community Housing Canberra, wrote to the Canberra Times to tell us that the government was in negotiation with Community Housing Canberra at the time and then pulled out suddenly in order to hand the property over to Koomarri. Margaret Spalding, the chief executive of Koomarri then and now, is reported as saying that the park was thrust on them over two days and that they did not really have a chance to work out if they wanted it.
The key concern of Greens MLA Kerrie Tucker and the Labor opposition at the time was security of tenure for the residents. Minister Brendan Smyth simply transferred the five-year moratorium on changes to the lease purpose clause put in place by the commonwealth when it transferred ownership to the ACT government the year before. I look forward to Mr Smyth, who is not in the room but perhaps listening eagerly upstairs, enlightening us as to any underlining purposes for making in the end such a rushed decision to push the park onto Koomarri.
Koomarri’s decision to put the park on the open market this year and to sell it to the highest bidder is perhaps the hardest part of the process to understand. I wonder how much debate went on at board level about the moral right Koomarri had to a windfall $2 million and whether the sale to the highest bidder—treating the park as any other asset, to quote ActewAGL chief executive and Koomarri president John Mackay—was a fair and proper course of action.
It was unfortunate that managing the park did not create a viable business opportunity for Koomarri’s supported employees, which it was earlier argued would be the benefit of the deal. It is also unfortunate that Koomarri’s management of the park overall left a lot to be desired. I would like to know whether Koomarri discussed the proposed sale of the park with the ACT government before it put it on the market and whether anyone else was advised of the possible sale of the land prior to January this year.
I think we need to remember that Koomarri is now a company limited by guarantee. Its objects are to support and create opportunities for people living with disability. All decisions it makes in pursuing those objects are business decisions. The board of Koomarri includes three of Canberra’s top business people—Stephen Byron from the airport, James Service and John Mackay. They are on Koomarri’s board, I suppose, because they see it as a way of contributing to our community. However, the corporate
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .