Page 2544 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 23 August 1994
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The wilful damage question in relation to the Housing Trust is even more farcical. In spite of the fact that they have been chasing up wilful damage, it has been done with a blunderbuss approach. That is the best way I can explain it. Whether or not you are a tenant of the Housing Trust, the blunderbuss has been fired at you. We have had numerous phone calls, Mr Lamont, from people who were never Housing Trust tenants but who have been getting bills. We have been getting phone calls from people who were involved with the trust in terms of building fences between properties, et cetera. The whole thing has been a total shambles. The reason why it has been a total shambles has nothing to do with Laurens and Co., who are, in fact, the debt collectors. It is the fault of the trust because it has inadequate records. I would suggest to you that it has inadequate records because, frankly, nobody gave a damn about the fact that $2m in public funds was outstanding in arrears for wilful damage. Nobody bothered to chase it up. That is a scandalous comment, I accept. It is a scandalous indictment of the ACT Housing Trust. Frankly, Chief Minister, if I were you, I would talk to your Minister for Housing and suggest that he fix it, just as I understand you spoke recently to other people about the planning problems that exist in this Territory.
I would hope that we can get a satisfactory response from this Estimates Committee process, Mr Lamont, as to what is happening in relation to the Housing Trust. I would hope, further, that we do not have decent people, trust tenants or not, being harassed for debts that either they do not owe or they offered to pay, and, because of the incompetence of the trust, were never asked to pay.
I turn briefly now to the question of education. Again I do not find much on which to compliment the Government. I was disturbed about the Montessori School. This is set out at paragraphs 4.135 and 4.136. As Mr Wood knows - there is no recommendation about this - I was unhappy about the conflict in replies that appeared between May and June - in other words, within one month - in relation to the condition of the Montessori School's property in MacGillivray Street, Yarralumla. In May I was told that there was nothing wrong with the property; yet in June, when the budget came down, $300,000 was given to the Montessori School to relocate to Yarralumla Primary because of the condition of the MacGillivray Street property. I still have not had, in my opinion, an adequate response to that situation.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Cornwell, your time has expired.
MR CORNWELL: I conclude, Madam, by saying that I believe that much of this Estimates Committee report leaves the Government in an embarrassing situation. As we are approaching an election, I am sure that you will hear a lot more about this.
MR BERRY (Manager of Government Business) (8.53): Madam Speaker, Ms Ellis talked about the Estimates Committee process and drew attention to some of the problems with it. I heard Mr Moore and Ms Szuty defending the numbers on the committee, saying that the Liberals did not really dominate it because there were, after all, two Independents and three Labor people there. The fact of the matter is - I can add up -
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