Page 1732 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 21 August 2007

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Our capacity to raise funds from rents is curtailed because most of our tenants are on very low incomes, largely confined to Centrelink benefits, which means that the rebates are high and therefore less rent is generated to sustain our public housing. The commonwealth government knows this because an objective of the CSHA is to ensure that public housing support is provided to our most needy.

During the last 12 months we have introduced new measures to strengthen our targeting to tenants with high and complex needs. This means that tenancy management and support costs to manage and sustain these tenancies are high and increasing, whilst at the same time tenants with high and complex needs and with low incomes are less able to maintain their property; therefore costs are expected to increase in future.

Clearly, the loss of all or part of the CSHA funding would impact upon service delivery of social housing in the territory because the combination of higher costs and lower rents, particularly from the effects of tighter targeting, has constrained the ability of public housing to grow organically without further injections of funding from government.

Mr Stanhope: I ask that all further questions be placed on the notice paper.

Speaker’s ruling

MR PRATT (Brindabella): Mr Speaker, I seek your advice on a particular matter, and that is the convention of ministers and MLAs, indeed, all of us, not wishing to mislead the Assembly. Could I seek your advice on the answer provided by Mr Hargreaves to the effect that the Gungahlin Drive extension is well managed, et cetera? In fact, it was two years late and $76 million over budget. Would you like to advise him that he might wish to withdraw that statement?

MR SPEAKER: Order! I think you are trying to start a debate on a particular matter. You do not need my advice on that matter.

MR PRATT: I am just seeking your advice, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: You do not need my advice. It is a matter for the Assembly to deal with, if it so wishes.

MR PRATT: Thank you, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: It would need, therefore, to be pursued with a motion of some sort.

Papers

Mr Speaker presented the following papers:

Auditor-General Act—Auditor-General’s Reports—

No 2/2007—Agency Implementation of Audit Recommendations—

Report, dated 14 June 2007, including a corrigendum.

Corrigendum.

No 3/2007—Collection of fees and fines, dated 25 June 2007.


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