Zivko bitch-slaps Koomarri offer

I must say I am getting a little sick of the ‘they didn’t pay rent’ line. This is a management issue (i.e. Komarri’s issue) not that of paying residents. If I were to call John Mackay at Actew and say “Hey, I’ve decided not to pay my bills anymore but I don’t expect to get cut off or suffer any implications, and please don’t contact me again” what do you think the response would be? Probably not just let it go, have lots of other people then do the same then sell their electricity business because it was losing money. Koomarri’s role in this entire situation, from the moment of handover through to everyday management, maintenance and unnecessary electricy upgrades reeks of incompetance.

Yes, they may be true, Seepi, but the fact that some tenants owe a combined total of $100000 in overdue rent probably didn’t do them all any favours when Koomari was considering it’s options.

they are ‘special’ in a number of ways

1 – they were looking after themselves, and not waiting for the govt to give them a house

2 – they have been done over by govt/s, charity and developers

3 – they are a mass of people needing homes that the govt/community will have to address in some way. It isn’t that any individual is more deserving than someone else you may know on the housing list, but just that this is a major blow to an already stressed community housing program.

4 – it is all so completely pointless and should not have happened.

Well, people started out being interested in this because it’s a case of people being screwed over by a charity. We expect people to be screwed over by business and by government on a regular basis – we don’t expect them to be screwed over by organisations for whom “social responsibilty” are their only reason for existance.

Theoreticaly, if the govenment housing process was running in any kind of sensible manner, yes, there would be similar “special favours” for everyone on a low income to enable them to get some kind of shelter. As we’re all well aware by now, the unrestricted nature of the government housing leases means that the system’s clogged up with a fair few people on incomes that could not possibly be described as “low” (incidentally, anybody with a firm policy to fix this has a good claim on my vote at the next Legislative Assembley election – Deb included, should she decide that she’s learned her lesson). So most of these people will become newly homeless and end up at the back of the queue, due to a fair bit of bad management by the Government (who could have easily prevented this back in the day by restricting the use of the land prior to on-selling it to Koomarri).

Why is this crowd so special? What about every other bugger doing it tough on unemployment benefits/family payments/no income/ disability support pension/name your other very low income source.

Special guvmint favours for them too?

Why should this crowd of people get favourtism over other equally down and out sectors of our society – especially when according to the law, the new owner can do what they want legally?

Ronald the green may speak about corporate social responsibility, but last time I looked, that was not in an act of law.

Social responsibility – is that something that deb foskey upheld during her stay in public housing bludging off my taxes whilst a pollie? Talk about foot shots and double standards Ronald!!!!!

“these people need low cost accommodation, and what they have is a hell of a lot more social and pleasant that a block of concrete flats.”

I concur. What the ACT Government should do is offer to swap Zivko the Currong “suicide” Flats in Braddon for the Narrabundah long-stay. If ever there was land that should be cleared, that particular plot should be top of the list.

Seepi, do you mean the site where the YHA used to operate, cause I think that the ANU are using a portion of that site to accommodate students.

O’Connor?

That is were they are going to place their busway.

ACT govt was willing to throw 500 thousand at the buy back. Koomarri can afford to spend a bit too.
– The O’connor park recently closed down – I don’t kinow who owns that one now…

The whole thing is ridiculous. these people need low cost accommodation, and what they have is a hell of a lot more social and pleasant that a block of concrete flats. They aren’t holding their hands out for the gov’t to do any thing for them, they just want things to remain how they’ve been for years.

We are moving from being a society, into being an economy, run so that a few rich people can line their pockets.

The Act Property Council has been quiet on this issue trying to divert attention from its star developer, Jo Zivco. Maybe it wants to change the intent of the Land ACT to allow land speculation in the ACT, thus improving the wealth of its members.

How much will his 9 hectares be worth in five years time when the mass eviction is only a memory? Will other parks, such as Watson Carotel, Symonston Southside and O’Connor be purchased with a view to changing land use to multi-unit development? More mass evictions are not out of the question because of the current lack of legislation. The Property Council knows how to lobby!

One would hope that the ACT Libs would promise not to change the Land usage of the Narra Longstay from a Caravan Park. Big Bill from Narrabundah should let us know what his position is.

The trouble in moving the tenants next door is that bags of public money would be needed on infrastructure to set it up.

Then again Koomarri has $2 million in ill-gotten gains from this episode. Could be a tempting pot of cash to use.

If there is a plot next door that would be the ideal solution. Move the tenants there – they are still close to shops/busses etc that they know. AND their presence will keep Josip’s land value low.
I think Koomarri are more at fault than the developer. It is stupid of them to sell something because it was losing them money, and expect the buyer ( a developer) to continue to run it. Whereas Josip was just buying a property that was legally for sale.

What bothers me about Jolly Josip (nice one, Ari!) is what deals he has made, or will make, with the ACT government once that 18 months is up. Will he then have an agreement, or at least an expectation, that Seven-Storey Simon will approve whatever plans he has for the site?

I don’t trust this governemnt one jot in that we can no longer expect that (if we ever could) that secret deals are not being made, and Jolly Josip needs to bear in mind that behind-the-scenes double-dealing can come back and bite him.

Still OT for a second – I doubt the ACT would have enough of a secure water supply for a reactor anyway.

Jervis Bay would be a cert.

Slinky, as my sarcasm meter is broken, I will err on the side of seriousness and mention that the latest mail on any proposed nyucular (sic) site is that it will be somewhere in Jervis Bay, as this is federal land and free from any state-level beurocracy.

Sorry for the OT banter everyone – back to the point.

there is an issue of Corporate Social responsibility.

The Property Council, the Liberal party, et al have been very quiet on the issue since we raised it last week.

Mr Zivko bought the property from the now apologetic Koomarri with the intention of evicting the residents.

That was his intent, not Koomarri’s.

It’s all a bit like the Walrus and the Carpenter.
Koomarri the Walrus and Zivko the Carpenter, but whoever does what, the oysters get eaten.

Symonston or Hume? That’s where they want to build the nuclear reactor!

I seriously don’t see the massive problem here. The Government and Koomari should admit they’ve cocked up completely. Then they should arrange to allocate the plot of land opposite the long-stay to either swap with Zivko or develop it as a new facility for current tennants. Hell if they decided to go the way of a new development it could even be given a positive spin and made better than the current establishment.

Failing that there is plenty of land at Symonston or Hume.

I notice Brendan Smyth has been noticeably quiet on all of this, since his actions are the root cause of this debacle.

Combine his negligence with naked greed from a charity and you end up with hundreds of damaged people and a developer smiling like the Cheshire Cat.

The Govt doesn’t have a whole heap of options now, but I do hope they play hardball to make it as difficult as possible for Jolly Josip.

And for once I’d have to say Foskey was right about something. The Govt should have listened back when the sale was mooted.

The govt missed their chance to do that – despite warnings from the Greens. Deb Foskey should be trumpeting that more.
As someone else has said, the lease probably includes ‘shortstay accomodation’ or some such, enabling Jozip to build luxury hotel or fancy short stay units such as James Court.
Koomarri still looks ridiculous, and the govt hads only put off their problem for 18 months – although in the meantime they will have to maintain the park and try to collect rent from the disgruntled tenants.
I do think the govt should think about building a new long stay park somewhere else, as part of the housing solution.

If the government played hardball and said that they wouldn’t approve any change of lease on the site, do you think he’d change his tune?