Page 950 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 25 February 2009
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So at this stage we have no reason to believe that the relationships that we have, the undertakings we have from financial institutions, are other than that they will support land rent.
I find it pretty amazing that the Chief Minister, in spite of all that has happened or all that has not happened over the last eight months with regard to this scheme, still remains so committed to this scheme. But again, it is not so surprising. This government is not committed to homeownership; it is not committed to young Canberra families. In fact, if you look at the sale to tenants scheme, part of Housing ACT, 0.2 per cent of tenants last year took up the scheme. Two in every thousand people last year took up the sale to tenants scheme. As an indicator of how serious this government is about homeownership, I doubt the other 998 people even knew the scheme existed. Last year, according to the annual report, there were 11,253 public housing tenancies. In one line in the annual report it says 27 people bought their own ACT government property. That is not much of a commitment, I think, to sales to tenants. It is not much of a commitment to people trying to get into the housing market.
What this problem comes down to is a complete lack of responsibility, a complete lack of duty, that this government has to the people of Canberra with regard to the scheme. They promised so much. They promised these people that this would be their in, their in into a market they otherwise could not get into. They signed up to the scheme with good intentions. They signed up, thinking that it was a good scheme. They signed up, thinking that it was a credible scheme. They signed up, thinking that this would actually better their futures. Instead, they have been grossly let down. Thirty-nine families have been grossly let down by this government and they are still out there in the cold, still waiting for a financial operator to come on board. But why would they come on board? Why would they come on board when you have got a depreciating house on a block of land that you do not own?
Perhaps the government is going to announce, in the coming days or coming weeks or coming months, that there is in fact a financial operator. We do not know. The Chief Minister will not say. But before that time, Canberrans are going to be waiting, these 39 families are going to be waiting, to get some security for their future which is the very thing they signed up to. The government does not take public housing seriously; the government does not take sale to tenants seriously; the government does not take sale to first homebuyers seriously. So it is no surprise that the land rent scheme is not working.
MR HARGREAVES (Brindabella—Minister for Disability and Housing, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for Corrections) (11.15): The opposition have missed one of the most significant points related to this scheme and other initiatives of the government to effect homeownership or try to encourage homeownership in the ACT. Certainly, Mr Coe shows his ignorance of the public housing sector and continues to display that ignorance. I wish that he would do his homework just a little better and then maybe he will make some sense that we can actually take on board.
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