Page 1988 - Week 05 - Thursday, 16 May 2019
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Access Canberra does not routinely check the insurance records of owners corporations, it being primarily a matter for the executive committee to comply with all legislated requirements, and a matter. In circumstances where an owner or occupier of a unit has concerns about compliance by their executive committee with legislative requirements about insurance policies, the person may make an application to the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal. The Tribunal has broad powers under the Act to make orders to resolve disputes between owners corporations and owners or occupiers of units. This provides an independent oversight mechanism of actions of owners corporations in relation to insurance policies.
Housing—debt
(Question No 2410)
Ms Le Couteur asked the Minister for Housing and Suburban Development, upon notice, on 5 April 2019:
Can the Minister provide the following information about the 2019-20 Federal Budget Papers that list an outstanding loan owed by the Territory totalling $123 161 000 (Budget Paper no. 3, Appendix D – Debt Transactions, table D1, page 114) which is a separate line item to the Commonwealth State Housing Agreement debt, (a) what does the outstanding loan amount relate to, (b) is this debt being repaid from Housing ACT’s budget, or from consolidated revenue and (c) has the ACT Government made requests to the Australian Government for this debt to be forgiven.
Ms Berry: The answer to the member’s question is as follows:
(a) The outstanding loan amount ($123,161,000 at 30 June 2018) relates to the Commonwealth Housing Assistance Ordinance 1987, which realigned ACT public housing with the Commonwealth State Housing Agreement, along similar lines to those applying to State Housing Authorities.
Under direction, the then Commonwealth Department of the Arts, Sports the Environment, Tourism and Territories transferred control of Commonwealth rental housing stock (within the ACT) to the Commissioner for Housing for the ACT (Commonwealth), as well as a debt relating to a low-cost mortgage program in place at the time.
After self-government in 1989, the control of public housing in Canberra passed to the ACT Government, including the transfer of over 11,000 public housing properties, and the associated loan and mortgage liability.
(b) The debt is currently divided between Housing ACT ($58,099,000), which relates to rental housing stock, and the Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development Directorate ($65,062,000), which relates to the Commissioner for Housing Mortgages. Housing ACT repays the debt from its own budget and CMTEDD repays from the Territory Banking Account – both at a fixed rate of 4.5 per cent.
(c) The ACT Government canvassed the possibility of the Australian Government forgiving the debt as part of the negotiations for the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement but the Commonwealth did not agree at that time. A formal request of this nature is currently under consideration as part of the public housing management strategy.
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