Page 953 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 25 February 2009
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MR HARGREAVES: I am embarrassed to sit in a chamber with people like that, Madam Deputy Speaker. That is what I am embarrassed about. This government has done so many things to try to get people into homeownership that people interstate ask me in housing ministerial councils how we are going about it. They ask me, “How are you going about it there?” And we tell them. The conversations that we have with the commonwealth now are agreeable conversations, trying to move forward in this sense.
I contrast that with my experience with the Liberals when they were in charge in the commonwealth parliament. I had nothing but fight after fight. Nowadays, at least we are finding the way forward, because we are doing innovative things here in the ACT. What these guys should do is recognise that there is an option. There are a number of options being put forward to the people of the ACT.
What they might like to do is this. I give them this challenge. They are supposed to be the alternative government. Let them put on the table another option to help people into homeownership. In all of my time as minister for housing in this place—and this is my fifth year—I have heard not one suggestion on how we could move people from the rental marketplace into homeownership. Not one. They come up and say, “We do not like this, we do not like that and we do not like something else.” We have heard nothing about how you can do it.
Mr Hanson: Didn’t you hear about stamp duty?
MR HARGREAVES: They have not come up with a scheme yet. They talk about stamp duty, their stamp duty concessions. What happened about that? The Treasury officials themselves blew that one out of the water. It was a nonsense, and you know it was a nonsense. It was arrant, abject nonsense. I wonder which absolute bright spark on that side of the chamber invented the nonsense. The Treasury department blew it out of the water. They have gone back to go; down the snake they have gone. They just pull up the ladder and down the snake they go again.
I would like them to put on the table a concrete scheme which will effect homeownership more quickly for people on low incomes—actually concrete. So far you have been found wanting. Mr Coe sits there and plays with his telephone instead of thinking up something really concrete to do. I know what he is doing, Madam Deputy Speaker; he is ringing a friend. That is what he is doing; he is ringing a friend. (Time expired.)
MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (11.25): I am not surprised that Mr Hargreaves has run away from his chair after that performance. It is unfortunate that we have got cameras in the chamber, because it is that kind of performance which leads ordinary Canberrans to not have much faith in some of the people in this place. That was a disgraceful speech, which made no sense and was not backed up by one fact or any sort of basic logic.
Just briefly to respond to Mr Hargreaves, because I do not want to spend too much time doing that, he obviously was not listening to my speech. We have outlined in a
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