Page 2009 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 7 June 2017
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Public housing—community consultation
MRS JONES: My question is to the Chief Minister, in his capacity as Minister for Economic Development with responsibility for capital works and procurement. Chief Minister, in regard to public housing construction in Chapman, Holder, Wright, Mawson and Monash, why was industry notified of these procurement opportunities before the conclusion of community consultations?
MR BARR: I think there is a routine process for early advice to industry through what I understand to be a regular standing meeting of forward government programs and projects. It is not a commitment that a project will go ahead, but it is an opportunity to give industry advance notice of an intention, without necessarily confirming that a procurement will go ahead. So one can imagine an alternative circumstance where Mrs Jones would get up and ask a question about why industry was not consulted earlier in the process. You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t, in the eyes of the opposition. In this instance the government seeks to engage and that engagement is at an early level. It does not always mean that a procurement will go ahead in exactly the manner that is first anticipated, when that engagement begins, or that it will be to exactly the same time frame. But I think there is value in early engagement with industry when it comes to government procurement.
MRS JONES: Minister, were such notifications and/or meetings held or detailed prior to the consultation process commencing with local residents?
MR BARR: I will need to take that level of detail on notice and look at the two dates but I do not think it is particularly relevant.
Mrs Jones: It is relevant.
MR BARR: I do not think it is at all, because the government’s intention has been very clear: we are going to build more public housing and that involves engagement with industry. Whilst the individual blocks of land are of great interest, building public housing is something the government is committed to and will continue to do. Engagement with industry on the construction of new public housing, generally as well as specifically, I think, has value.
MR PARTON: Chief Minister, why, contrary to your own platitudes, does your government continue to pay little more than lip service to community consultation?
MR BARR: I fundamentally reject the premise of the member’s question. The government has been very clear over a number of years that we will be building more public housing. We have identified and will continue to identify opportunities to expand the city’s public housing stock. That is not a question that is up for debate. I heard that Mr Parton may have quoted me earlier.
This is one of the issues, that apparently there is tripartisan support that we should be building more public housing in the city. There is a very lively debate about the location, the design and the density of that housing, and about construction materials,
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