Page 1950 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 23 June 2021
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MS LAWDER: Minister, what improvements have Programmed facilities management made to the day-to-day lives of government housing tenants in the ACT, given we are seeing the number of complaints being received increasing?
MS BERRY: I might take a bit of that question on notice because I can show the differences between the previous contract and the new contract under Programmed and the improvements that were made to the contract to ensure that works did improve, following the Auditor-General’s report but also to the change in that contract arrangement.
MRS KIKKERT: Minister, how often do you receive a report on the quality control activities which were such an issue in the previous contract?
MS BERRY: As I said previously, I respond to every single individual who gets in touch with my office about their particular issues and then can follow up with Housing ACT and Programmed about those works for those individual properties and people who live in them. As far as an overall quality control analysis report, I receive those from time to time, but I can take that on notice and provide that information to the chamber.
Housing—homelessness
MR CAIN: My question is to the Minister for Homelessness and Housing Services. Minister, almost 3,000 Canberrans are currently waiting between 300 and 1,300 days for social housing, yet the Greens have promised a “home for all”. One of my constituents was sleeping in a tent on public land. When the minister was alerted, it took over seven weeks to receive a response. Minister, why are hundreds of homeless Canberrans left waiting for years for accommodation?
MS VASSAROTTI: I thank Mr Cain for the question. In relation to the issue of the waiting list, the ACT government recognises that there has been increased demand for public housing, which is continuing to grow. We have seen the number of priority applicants increasing. This is something that both governing parties have been really focused on. As part of our parliamentary and governing agreement, the commitment to increase the numbers of public housing and improve the situation for people who are homeless is a really significant commitment. It is something that we are continuing to work through, in relation to activities such as the budget announcements in February, when there was a significant injection into homelessness services of $2.9 million to respond to the issue. So this issue around homelessness is one we work on specifically with our specialist homelessness services, particularly OneLink. Again, OneLink was one of the organisations that received additional funding through the February budget.
In relation to responses that you might be getting from our office, when we get an issue from another member’s office, particularly around someone who is in significant need, the focus absolutely is on responding to the individual situation, finding out information and ensuring that, as far as possible, we can provide an immediate response. Sometimes with the correspondence there is a delay in getting back to
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