Page 1527 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 10 May 2017
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We are asking the government to provide to the Assembly a definition of social housing and supportive housing and outline where in legislation these definitions appear. I have already picked several of them from various government websites and the legislation register but there are a range of definitions that appear, and I think it should be quite clear to the community whether the government in a legal sense believes that supportive housing is an umbrella term that includes social housing, or vice versa. I think it is only fair that the community is allowed to know what the government believes is the case.
We are asking the government to explain to ACT residents why CFZ land is being used for residential purposes when community facility zoned land is quite clearly intended for things like places of worship, recreational facilities, childcare centres, libraries and green spaces, to name a few. It is not intended for industrial or residential uses. Quite clearly many people want to understand why this land is being used rather than residential zoned land.
The government has done a poor job of consulting the community so far on this issue. Other speakers this morning, including Ms Le Couteur and Mrs Jones, have already spoken to that point about the lack of consultation and the loss of community faith, if you like, in the process the government has undertaken. It is time that the government answered to the people of Canberra about this community facility zoned land that is about to become housing.
The motion calls on the government to explain to the Assembly and the wider community why residents are losing access to land that was intended to provide them with suburban community facilities. The government have not stated the rationale for that. They are trying to make this more about public housing than the loss of community facility land, whereas in reality the loss of community facility land will impact just as much on new residents moving into the area, whether they are in public housing or not. They will no longer have access to that land that was zoned for community use. It is not only existing residents who are disenfranchised in this regard, it is the new residents moving in who will not have access to the same facilities.
We are asking the government to provide to the Assembly a list outlining all community facility zoned land that is currently being considered for public housing developments in the future. The freedom of information request that I received copies of last week shows a number of lines in the table that have been redacted or blacked out. This implies that there are many other areas throughout Canberra that are being considered for public housing as well, and I think that members of the public would like to understand whether this is being considered in their suburb as well so that they can think about the ramifications of losing access to what they believed was going to be a community facility such as a childcare centre, a place of worship, a library, a green space or an indoor recreational facility and that will no longer be the case.
We are asking the government to report back to the Assembly on these matters by the first sitting day of June 2017. (Time expired.)
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