Page 1558 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 14 May 2019
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
large multi-unit public housing sites have been earmarked for renewal as part of the five-year capital works program developed as part of the growing and renewing public housing 2019 to 2024 plan, which you released yesterday? What consultation has been done with the affected communities?
MS BERRY: As Ms Le Couteur will be aware, through the current renewal of public housing across the ACT, there has been significant consultation with existing communities, particularly with housing tenants, to ensure that they have their needs met and have the same choices as every one of us has about where, across the city, they would like to live.
Public housing tenants should have exactly the same rights as we do. They have their own goals and aspirations to a decent quality of life. There is no reason why they should not have a choice about where across the ACT they live in Canberra. As with everybody else also in our community, public housing tenants are entitled to some privacy about where they live and where their homes are.
Ms Le Couteur: Madam Speaker, I am afraid the minister misinterpreted. When I said “the affected communities” I was referring primarily to the affected communities of tenants who lived in multi-unit developments which may be about to be renewed. My question is about the multi-unit tenants.
MADAM SPEAKER: Ms Berry, you have time left.
MS BERRY: The housing properties that will be developed across the city will be low-density, multi-unit housing and individual houses across the city. As Ms Le Couteur will know, the high-density housing blocks were renewed and removed as part of the public housing renewal program. Public housing tenants are now living in brand new public housing that better suits their needs and that makes it more affordable for them to heat and cool in Canberra’s challenging climates (Time expired.)
MS LE COUTEUR: Will the government’s 15 per cent target for public, community and affordable housing dwellings apply to the new land releases and urban infill which will apply to these sites when they are eventually identified?
MS BERRY: These are not large, multi-unit sites. Let me be clear: they are not large, multi-unit sites that will be developed.
Mr Coe: Which ones are they?
MS BERRY: Mr Coe, I know you are very interested in the private lives of individuals in this town but public housing tenants have every right to have their homes not disclosed to anybody. It is not really any of your business, Mr Coe, where public housing tenants—
MADAM SPEAKER: Minister, through the chair, and I would not respond to interjections. You have a minute and a half.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video