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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 13 Hansard (5 December) . . Page.. 4466 ..

MS HORODNY: I ask a supplementary question. I just wonder why your adviser was quoted as saying that there were three developers who were interested. Was it a misquote or where did that come from? Are you saying that the Government has absolutely no plans for that site at the moment?

MR HUMPHRIES: I am aware of only one, but if my adviser was aware of three people who expressed an interest I am sure that is accurate. There are no Government plans. I can guarantee that absolutely. The Government certainly has looked at issues. The Government has had proposals put before it from time to time, but none of that constitutes anything other than an offer to look at something. Nothing has yet transpired which I would call concrete and likely to proceed to any changes to the brickworks. If there are such changes, of course I will advise the Assembly.

MS REILLY: My question is to the Minister for Housing.

Mrs Carnell: You are not going to ask about the SACS award today?

MS REILLY: It would be good if you listened when I ask questions. Mr Stefaniak, despite your claim that ACT Housing has increased maintenance funding to $15m, is it not the case that outstanding and critical maintenance would require a budget of $65m just to catch up on the backlog; that you were deliberately letting ACT Housing properties, which are public assets of considerable value, run down; and that some tenants have been informed that they will not get any maintenance at all done? Minister, what measures are in place to ensure that the gap between what is presently being spent on maintenance and what should be spent on maintenance is bridged?

MR STEFANIAK: I thank you for the question, Ms Reilly. I do not quite know where you get $65m from. I think it must be painfully obvious to everyone now that we have a very large housing stock. Some of it is very old and it does require a lot of maintenance. Whilst we would love to be able to do 100 per cent of everything that everyone wanted, that sadly is probably never going to be the case. However, I am pleased to see that we are spending $14.9m on maintenance this year. I am also pleased to see a couple of other things occurring. It seems that the project in Belconnen, for example, where - - -

Mrs Carnell: It is $12,500 for every house.

MR STEFANIAK: It is a fair bit. Under the project we are trialling in Belconnen, an inspector has to look after maintenance and tenant issues for 320 properties. Already we are noticing not only improvements in maintenance being done but also, funnily enough, some efficiencies and savings. That is good because that is all money that can be churned back into the system.

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