Page 1299 - Week 04 - Thursday, 10 April 2008
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greater than that. We need to understand the budgetary impact on the taxpayer of getting them out of that particular complex into something else, because our rebate then goes up and our liability goes up with it. Further, we are taking people away from their supports, and that might not work either. So, sometimes, those decisions are best left to natural attrition, where the churn picks up that. It is a combination of all of that.
Mr Seselja: More debt, Richard.
MR HARGREAVES: If you’re going to be insensitive about it, you feel free. If we have a combination of that, then everyone is a winner. Now, I can assure the chamber and the Assembly that every penny we get from the sale of these multi-unit properties—every single cent—goes towards the purchase of more real estate for the public housing portfolio.
Members might like to know that we also have a regard to the density of public housing in any given suburb. Ainslie, for example, at one point was as much as 35 per cent public housing. In Kingston, it is 9.24 per cent. The average across town we would like to see as reasonable would be 10 per cent—between 10 and 15 per cent, depending on the suburb. We are conscious of not wanting to overload some suburbs, but we are also conscious of the fact that, at the end of the day, this is a service about positively affecting somebody’s life and not leaving them to sit in a place by themselves in a dysfunctional environment when we can, if we have the will, do something about it. We will, because we can. We will be in office long enough to see it happen.
Economy—interest rates
MRS DUNNE: My question is to the Chief Minister and Treasurer. Treasurer, you have had a lot to say in the last few days in this place about interest rates. In the Hawke-Keating years the average interest rate in Australia was 12.75 per cent and in the Howard years it was 7.26 per cent on average. There is a range of economic factors that influence interest rates. These include the inflation rate, domestic consumption, the rate of public and private gross fixed capital formation—
Mr Hargreaves interjecting—
Mr Pratt interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Mr Hargreaves and Mr Pratt, order!
MRS DUNNE: the increasing credit risks of lending institutions or the worsening market conditions and growth standstills in overseas countries, especially large economies like the United States. Treasurer, which of these factors or combination of factors impacted most on the Hawke-Keating’s 12.75 per cent and the coalition’s 7.26 per cent interest rates?
Mr Corbell: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. The question is clearly out of order. The Chief Minister is not responsible for any of those matters relating to federal
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