Page 1975 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 3 June 2015
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I ask you, Mr Assistant Speaker, how relocating public housing tenants away from Northbourne Avenue to suburbs where it is difficult to get public transport within a reasonable walking distance of households will make it easy for those people to access opportunities, including education, training and employment. Relocating public housing tenants off the Northbourne Avenue corridor may dislocate them from their support networks and put them at risk of social exclusion.
We have previously spoken in this place about Chisholm, because there are some plans to relocate some public housing tenants there. However, as we have said previously, the government’s own transport for Canberra 2012-31 plan states:
For some areas on the fringes of suburbs—
such as Chisholm—
the circuitous street layout and hilly topography … make it difficult to provide public transport within a reasonable walking distance of … households, and make the car an easier travel option.
It goes on to say that housing near transport corridors such as Northbourne Avenue has access to high frequency public transport.
Forced car ownership is a real risk to those public housing tenants relocated to the outer suburbs where it is difficult to provide public transport within a reasonable walking distance of households. Forced car ownership is defined as an “involuntary choice low income families have when owning and operating cars because no other transport options are available but they need the accessibility which a car brings”.
Of course, they will then experience further disadvantage because of this government’s plan to charge more for parking, more for rego and more for drivers licences. So we see additional burdens on those who may be forced to buy a car as a result of being relocated to suburbs where public transport is not easily accessible. There is no need to take my word on this; just ask former Labor senator for the ACT Kate Lundy.
Just this morning Ms Berry referred to working with residents of public housing to understand their views. I have just this week received large amounts of feedback from residents of the Owen flats. They want to know how the government is going to relocate them before June 2016. Does the government already have suitable public housing stock available for these tenants?
Feedback I have received from Owen flats residents is that they are living with uncertainty. They are unsettled and unsure of the timing of their relocation. They ask why a tenant relocation committee or group was not established at the beginning of this government’s public housing renewal program. This would have been a good way to talk with them, rather than at them. Unfortunately, the talking at people in housing units along Northbourne Avenue appears to continue.
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