Page 2732 - Week 07 - Thursday, 3 July 2008
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(2) the foregoing provisions of this resolution have effect notwithstanding anything contained in the standing orders.
Leave of absence
Motion (by Ms Gallagher) agreed to:
That leave of absence be granted to Mr Stanhope for this sitting on the grounds of Executive business interstate.
Justice and Community Safety Legislation Amendment Bill 2008
Detail stage
Bill as a whole.
Debate resumed.
MRS BURKE (Molonglo) (4.32): I rise to add a little to what Mr Stefaniak said earlier today. I was reading through the Hansard of March in terms of what Mr Corbell had done then and was quite pleased to read what I did then. I do foreshadow my concerns about the amendment that moved by Mr Corbell. I hope that it does not in any way negate that earlier amendment in March.
So it is with some caution that we would accept what is being put forward here. But I would like to see it working in practice, because it does change the position, in that it says that the tribunal may make a termination and possession order—and this is the amendment:
… if it satisfied that the breach justifies the termination of the tenancy.
As we know—and many members have raised it in this place—there is the issue of antisocial behaviour, the very vexing issue of when, how, why and if we evict somebody. It is worth noting that at this stage that I and other members of the opposition are in receipt of many complaints. And we were talking now in the order of 20 to 24 suburbs in Canberra being affected. So we do need to make sure that we are looking at not tossing people onto the streets. I think Mr Hargreaves said at some stage that I apparently often say, “Kick them out.” I would like Mr Hargreaves to say wherever I have said, “Let’s kick them out,” apart from now when I was quoting him. I do not work that way. If people know me, they know I do not work that way.
In fact, many of the complaints that we are having at the moment are coming from public housing tenants about other public housing tenants. And Mr Hargreaves is quite right. What he says is that they have been hamstrung until now. And what he is saying is really no more than just shifting the chairs on the Titanic, because we tend to move the problem to somewhere else in the community. Whilst giving them every support and opportunity to really rectify and make good their tenancy agreement, we
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