Page 1009 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 24 March 2015
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In addition to the work of the personal support team, a dedicated team of six officers operate within Canberra Connect providing information and support to home owners and the broader community. Between October and December of last year this team responded to 1,418 calls relating to Mr Fluffy. In total there have been 4,067 calls through this team since they were stood up as part of the ACT government’s response on 25 June 2014. The task force’s web page, which was recently refreshed to enhance accessibility, has recorded in excess of 59,000 unique views since it was created, and regular e-newsletters are being sent directly to more than 2,000 people.
The task force is also working hard to support home owners who need extra support, such as the elderly and those with disability. Examples include targeted information provision and working across government, service providers and industry to ensure a comprehensive and connected response.
I wish to particularly highlight the support in place for elderly home owners. The government and the task force are aware of the significant impact this issue is having on senior home owners and are working hard to make any transitions as smooth as possible. Many of these home owners thought they would not need to move houses again in their lifetimes. Others may have put the asbestos insulation in themselves and then went through the original remediation program and, like many, thought their homes would be safe. Others purchased the homes as they aged to move closer to family, friends and services. We know these are real, emotive and considerable issues.
Firstly, it is important to note that home owners, including senior home owners, taking part in the buyback program do not need to leave their houses by 30 June 2015. Whilst for safety reasons the task force’s advice to all home owners is to leave quickly—and the buyback program supports this—the government has sought to be as flexible as possible in enabling home owners to stay in their homes in the medium term, being up to five years, to the middle of 2020. This is an option that many of our senior home owners are looking to take.
What this means in practice is that a home owner opts in to the program and two independent free valuations of their property are undertaken. An offer is then made by the ACT government to the home owner to purchase the property, which is, as I have mentioned previously, the average of the two valuations. If the home owner accepts this offer, a longer settlement period can be negotiated, with the home owner receiving the funds at the end of this period.
Home owners staying in their homes past 30 June 2015 will need to have an asbestos management plan and associated actions put in place. This is to support their safety, but importantly the safety of others who may need to visit or work in the homes, such as tradespeople or home care and home service providers. There will be a cost associated with this work for home owners, and the task force will work with senior home owners on ways to alleviate some of these cost pressures where possible.
Other ways the task force is providing targeted support to senior home owners include, but are not limited to, working closely with providers such as the Council on the Ageing, ensuring communications are accessible for senior home owners such as
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