Labor has shown today it would rather follow the Greens’ socialist ideology than support an initiative that will help build up to 150 new homes around the State for vulnerable Tasmanians.
Worse, both Labor and the Greens have shown their total contempt for creating a vibrant and thriving not-for-profit community housing sector, whose sole purpose of operation is to support vulnerable Tasmanians who cannot afford private rental housing.
Labor has further embarrassed themselves by saying that we should seek a mandate at an election for this policy, and then when they realised we already have in 2014, still opposed the policy nonetheless.
Our A hand-up for Vulnerable Tasmanians policy was very clear that we will “consider innovative partnerships between government, community and private sectors to increase the supply of affordable housing into the future, including examining the benefits of the transfer of title to community housing providers as a lever for growth, as happens in other States.”
This is exactly what we are doing.
Transferring the title of 300-500 existing houses will provide additional borrowing capacity to community housing organisations to build up to 150 new homes.
This is a logical step after the previous Labor-Green government transferred these properties under the Better Housing Futures program, which has seen the value of these assets already written down.
In fact, the previous Labor-Green government also transferred title to 20 blocks of land to community housing providers, which makes their opposition rather hypocritical.
While the Opposition parties clearly wish to scare people, the Government’s Affordable Housing Strategy has the needs of vulnerable Tasmanians firmly in mind and will, therefore, have appropriate safeguards and strict contractual obligations.
To even engage in the Expression of Interest (EOI) process, community housing providers must be registered under the National Regulatory System, which means that these organisations are financially stable, well governed and managed, have established track records, and no history of financial defaults.
Strong protections and arrangements will be put in place to protect the value of the assets transferred, and in the very unlikely event of a provider going out of business, the housing assets would be returned to Government or be given to another viable community provider to manage.
Tenants will also not be affected, and the tenants to be housed in the new properties will be priority housing applicants on the Housing Tasmania waitlist.
Further, and again contrary to Opposition claims, land managed by Housing Tasmania for the purposes of providing housing and housing assistance is subject to the Homes Act 1935, not the Crown Lands Act 1976.
Under the Homes Act, the Director of Housing is able to acquire, subdivide and sell land for the purposes of erecting dwelling places.
The bottom-line is this initiative will help provide extra housing for up to 150 vulnerable Tasmanian households. What does Labor have against putting roofs over the heads of people in need?