6 March 2006

Won't anybody think of the rich people?

| johnboy
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Squarely addressing concerns that the Liberals are the party of privilege, Jacqui Burke has put out a media release demanding more be done for the residents of Red Hill and their troubles with the filthy public housing residents.

Mrs Burke has met with a number of Red Hill residents who have complained about petty crime, theft and the general untidy state of their area, in particular the public housing complex on Discovery Street.

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There was a schoolboy stabbed at Red hill shops recently, I heard, don’t know any more about it.
We lived in a house in Cygnet Cres in the late eighties while saving for our first home. We were safe there then, even though there were some issues, but I wouldn’t live there for quids now. Why dont they put them up for sale to a developer like everywhere else?

Red Hill shops is in a bad way, and just because there are well off people nad embassies in the suburb doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be addressed.

The comment about being house proud is something that needs to be worked on. I have seen a large number of public housing tenants that live in filth. I have seen others that take care of the property, they should be rewarded.

The standard is that if you trash a place so badly that it can’t be lived in ACT Housing gives you another.

Bring back the government houses. Builders employed by the government to build basic houses for ACT Housing tenants.

The problem with Discovery street and Cygnet Cres is that there are too many sponges on society. Parasites living off welfare with no asperations to give back to the community.

Bonfire, I will address that.

2.8% unemployed is not the entireity of people who are on welfare in the ACT as I’m sure you are more than aware.

There are the Foskites, the people who have jobs and could reasonably afford their own house, or at least could reasonably afford to have a mortgage or rent;

There are people on Disability allowances. The amount of disabled parking in the ACT is a lot more than 2.8% of the avaliable parking I assure you;

There are the single mothers, yes hard done by as they are LG, they are still on welfare.

My point was actually regarding Public Tennants, not the Unemployed, however if I was unemployed I wouldn’t be voting Liberal as they tend to reduce welfare, whereas the Greens and Labour like to increase welfare payments.

maelinar following your logic 2.8% of the act, that being the act unemployment rate, woudl be voting labor or green as the party of the poor. so that leaves 97.2 % supporting thae party of the rich. unless there is a giant mugabe style gerrymander that im not aware of, the libs aint doing that well federally or locally for act representation.

A query;

Do the inhabitants of these public houses have any house pride ? Are they allowing things such as graffiti to get out of control and expect the Government to step in and fix it up without any effort or input from themselves ?

For instance, just how much paint have they put over graffiti themselves for this issue to be considered out of control ?

How many plants or gardens have they tended themselves before they decided to ask the Government to conduct restorative works ?

How often have the Police been called and they have not attended the scene ?

IMHO the answer to all of these questions is 0%.

It’s a fine enough situation to throw in the towel and say you’ve had enough, but it behoves people to actually attempt to do something PRIOR to holding a tantie in JB’s office, and stamping your feet wanting things to be done about it.

Public Tennants (although TT and ACA might beg to differ) are generally normal people who go about their day to day lives, except instead of renting a house, they are renting it off the Government.

Nowhere does it say you can’t do the gardens, mow the lawns regularly, or leave an abandoned holden or three to rust on the front lawn. Perhaps alongside the restructure of the public housing methods of practice, they could introduce performance based incentives, such as $5 a week off for a meticulously maintained property.

Jaqui, the Libs are a party that panders to the rich, I thought everybody knew that. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, the natural segregation of rich and poor follows; (in most circumstances for the pedants of the audience) rich people are those who are working hard and provide taxes, whereas poor people are those who consider living on welfare all their lives a lifestyle choice.

Is it wrong to give breaks to those people who are keeping this country upright, maintaining the economy, trying (for their part) to do the right thing ?

That’s pretty damned Liberal-in-a-sentence if you ask me.

The thing is Jacqui the leafy inner south seems to get a lot more media releases from your side of the chamber than the rest of the city does.

Jacqui Burke MLA1:22 pm 06 Mar 06

Thanks for highlighting this matter. Actually, it really is of great concern to me and as such was taken up by me as far back as 2003 when I met then with public housing tenants concerned that the complex was being let to run down and other tenants were not abiding by their tenancy agreements. Folks, when anyone comes to me from ANY suburb in Canberra with such matters, I would act on their behalf. With reference to the petition, it was in fact the residents and shopkeepers who initiated this without my knowledge. It was then presented to me when I met with shopkeepers, private residents and public housing tenants. As for your notions that the Liberal Party are simply a Party that panders to the rich (whatever that means) is false and mis-leading and unfair to me and to all of the people who are seeking my help as their elected representative. Finally, I have not heard any concrete response or committment from the Government as to what they are actually going to do to a) rejuvinate the Housing Complex (which the tenants rightly deserve) b) restore some law and order around the precinct so that people feel safe to be there and that business owners do not continue to experience a down turn in patronage. Put simply, if any other group or individual approached me with similar issues I would not hesitate to act upon their concerns – for example Fraser Court, Kingston and Oakes Estate are two such examples where I have been working with both tenants and private residents to see improvements to their neighbourhood. Why wouldn’t Red Hill deserve the same?

Where does this assumption come from that the “criminal element” are attracted to areas because they are run-down.

And does “redeveloped” mean done away with? Seems much more like social engineering to me – perhaps even a touch of nimbyism.

Yes you’re right. It’s a problem in a lot of places other than Red Hill. But where’s Jacqui worried about?

As for a petition made to be presented to a shadow minister? Please!

Johnboy this tedious pursuance of class war ideology via twee headlines may amuse you but its highly misleading.

ignoring an open wound doesnt lead to it healing.

there are several issues i took away from that media release:

– the shops need a spruce up.

– people are causing aggro at the shops – we need the jacks.

– 400 people in red hill are concerned enough to sign a petition.

– they consist of private and public housing tenants.

– the gummint said they were going to clean up the shops and the public housing, but havent.

I dont think this issue is isolated to the ‘rich’ on red hill, assuming you have your green left dictionary to hand to provide me with a definition of what actually constitutes a rich person.

I think you will find people of all spectrums of the tax bracket in red hill. or do you conveniently ignore the public housing residents themselves as some outpost of the proud downtrodden who shouldnt have decent facilities because then theyd just be boring middle class and not really suffering and therefore not convenient poster boys for your john howard at fault philosophy ?

the problems red hill are experiencing are endemic across the older areas of canberra where public infrastructure investment ceased 30 years ago. lack of maintenance, graffiti, crime not being investigated properly, shunting large group of dysfunctional people into public housing ghettoes and providing zero support except through charities etc.

i could go on, but its a bigger issue than your cheap shot headline makes out.

give it a fucking rest.

give it a fucking rest.

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