Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will only speak briefly on the ACT Government Loan Bill 2014. I understand we will then be moving to other business and returning to this bill in a few moments time. On 28 October this year the Minister for Employment and the ACT Chief Minister announced that an in-principle agreement had been reached for the Commonwealth to provide a $1 billion concessional loan to the ACT government for the purposes of its planned asbestos remediation program. The bill before the House today provides the government with the authority to be able to make this loan.

The bill provides that the government may make a loan of money to the ACT for the purposes of undertaking an asbestos remediation program and purposes related to that program. The bill states that the terms and conditions on which the loan is to be made are to be set out in a written agreement between the Commonwealth and the ACT. The bill also caps the total amount of the loan at $1 billion. The bill appropriates $750 million for the purpose of the loan in this financial year. The remaining $250 million is to be appropriated in the 2015-16 financial year in a future appropriation bill. This split across financial years mirrors what the ACT government has done in relation to its legislation, which was introduced into their parliament on Tuesday 25 November.

The loan will allow the ACT government to enter into individual agreements with those individual homeowners to buy back their homes which have been affected by Mr Fluffy loose-fill asbestos, demolish those asbestos contaminated blocks, clear the blocks and then look to resell that and recoup some of the costs of the overall scheme. The scheme will involve the purchase and demolition of 1,021 residential properties across many of Canberra's established suburbs. It has been estimated that this will take five years to complete. The loan arrangement between the Commonwealth and the ACT governments will be for a 10-year period.

I will not speak for much longer as I will defer to our two representatives, the two ACT members in this House, the members for Fraser and Canberra, to speak to the bill. This bill is an important step in the process of ensuring many families in Canberra are able to be confident that the home buyback scheme will go ahead and that the remediation process can be undertaken. The opposition will support this bill's passage through the parliament.

I note that we might not be ready to proceed with the next item, so I will just speak briefly on the issues relating to this. There has understandably been concern for a long time about any occurrence where asbestos is found in old buildings. We have seen campaigns run by many people over many years, including some representatives who have found their way here, in parliament, on my side of the House and who have devoted much of their professional lives to pursuing those companies that continued to put asbestos into dwellings long after it was known that the dangers were there.

The challenge that we have had here in the ACT is the number of residential homes that we are talking about and to try to find a constructive way forward of being able to deal with this. I am pleased that while there have been points of contention, and I will not deny that, I am pleased that we are at the point now where this process will start moving. The ACT government has commended the parliament to assist with the swift passage of this legislation. I commend the bill to the House. I understand we will now proceed to other business and then the ACT representatives within the parliament will also have an opportunity of speaking on this bill.

Debate adjourned.

Leave granted for second reading debate to resume at a later hour this day.