Canberra's public housing renewal taskforce has secured nearly 70 per cent of the housing stock it needs to replace tenants displaced by the redevelopment of the Northbourne Avenue and Red Hill flats, ACT housing minister Yvette Berry has said.
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As the stoush around new public housing blocks in five Canberra suburbs becomes increasingly political, Ms Berry said almost half of the 1288 public housing properties being knocked down have been vacated.
"So far, 388 homes have been delivered to Housing ACT through this program. These have been located in suburbs such as Chisholm, Monash, Coombs, Moncrieff, Denman Prospect and Amaroo, and include a mix of detached houses, townhouses and small apartment complexes," Ms Berry told the ACT Legislative Assembly on Tuesday.
"The Public Housing Renewal Taskforce is also continuing to construct a further 141 dwellings in suburbs including Holt, Denman Prospect, Nicholls and Throsby."
Ms Berry said as well as building homes, the government had bought more than 350 existing homes.
"It should be noted, that of these dwellings procured so far, nearly 180 replacement homes are in suburbs close to Northbourne Avenue, including Dickson, Lyneham, Turner, O'Connor and Braddon," Ms Berry said.
Despite the progress, question time in the ACT's parliament on Tuesday devolved into a yelling match between Ms Berry and the Canberra Liberals as they pursued her on claims of no consultation.
Canberra Liberals' Jeremy Hansen could be heard shouting "that's a lie" as Ms Berry alleged he had made comments in the paper to the effect of "not in our suburb, bugger off, we're full" about public housing.
Speaker Joy Burch forced Ms Berry to withdraw her use of 'bugger off' as it breached parliamentary rules around the use of language and told Mr Hansen to withdraw his interjections.
"If you use the word 'lie' you will withdraw. Unconditionally you can withdraw," Ms Burch said.
Mr Hansen: "Am I withdrawing lie or untruth?"
Ms Burch: "You can withdraw both and you can sit yourself down now."
