Page 4546 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 31 October 2018
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MADAM SPEAKER: Mrs Jones! Quiet, please! Do you have anything further to add, minister?
MS BERRY: No.
Housing—affordability
MR PARTON: My question is to the Minister for Housing and Suburban Development. Minister, your ACT housing strategy says that you will “set an annual target to increase affordable home purchase opportunities”. What will the target for affordable home ownership opportunities be?
MS BERRY: Those targets are set during the indicative land release programs, which are available online. The 2018-19 program is available online. Older targets that were delivered under the affordable housing strategy were around 400. This target, by introducing the 15 per cent, will deliver approximately 630 social and affordable dwellings each year.
MR PARTON: Minister, when will those targets in the forward estimates years be announced?
MS BERRY: They will be announced the same way the indicative land release programs are announced each year.
MR COE: Minister, do you accept that the government’s land release policy has had a detrimental impact on housing affordability in Canberra?
MS BERRY: No, I do not accept that.
Domestic and family violence—services
MS CODY: My question is to the Deputy Chief Minister. Minister, can you please provide an update on funding support available for families who are escaping or impacted by domestic and family violence?
MS BERRY: I thank Ms Cody for her interest in family safety. I want to inform the Assembly that in 2016, when we launched our $21.42 million package to fund our response to domestic and family violence, we also announced a new safer families grant assistance program to support people who had been impacted by family violence. The grants program was facilitated through the rental bond scheme. We have supported many women with funding assistance for such things as moving house, buying furniture and whitegoods and paying utilities and rent.
Over recent months, the program has been reviewed to make sure that it is working as well as it can and supporting the right people at the right time. Changes have been made to the program to allow easier access to grants of up to $2,000, with a total of $406,000 in funding committed over the next four years.
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