Page 1764 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 5 May 2010
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MS BRESNAN: Supplementary, Mr Speaker?
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Ms Bresnan.
MS BRESNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Minister, what is your response to the Canberra Business Council on their proposal that the government commission a study into the costs and benefits of selling public housing properties near Civic and replacing them with a better public and private sector housing mix?
MS BURCH: I welcome any discussion that looks to how we better manage our social housing properties. As I have said, we are about breaking down the concentration of disadvantage and that means that there will be a mix of social housing, affordable housing, high-end housing, around Civic. The reason why we are moving forward with this is that we believe it is the smartest way forward to redevelop that asset. The current stock sitting on there certainly needs some work to it. It seems a bad use of funds to go in and keep on fixing stock that is past its use-by date. But, in making that change, we need to get a return on our money that allows us to reinvest in public housing stock. I have no intention to move into this redevelopment, should it progress, without an increase in our public housing stock.
MR SPEAKER: Ms Hunter, a supplementary?
MS HUNTER: Yes, Mr Speaker. Minister, there are about 450 public housing units in total in Allawah, Bega and Currong at the moment. After the redevelopment, how many public housing units will there be in the Civic area?
MS BURCH: The final number cannot be prescribed now because we have not gone through the planning process. The buildings are not constructed. Currong was decanted a number of years ago. There are no public housing tenants currently in Currong. They are international students. They are students that are there on a year-by-year basis. There are 114, or similar number, across Bega and Allawah. We have made a commitment to a minimum of 10 per cent return to public housing stock. Again, we are in the early conversation. We are nowhere near planning and getting an absolute yield of what the number of units will be. Until we move towards that, our numbers will not be prescribed, other than our commitment to maintain, as much as we can, equal numbers on the sites.
Budget—transport
MR HARGREAVES: My question is to the Chief Minister in his capacity as Minister for Transport. Minister, a substantial part of the budget handed down by the Treasurer yesterday included funding for transport initiatives. Can you please inform the Assembly about some of these initiatives?
MR STANHOPE: I thank Mr Hargreaves for the question. Indeed, as all members are aware, the government’s determination to deal with issues around the development of sustainable transport for the ACT, for an enhancement of our public transport and for initiatives that will support our determination for our sustainable
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