Page 1493 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 17 April 1991
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MR HUMPHRIES (Minister for Health, Education and the Arts) (4.18): I was not going to speak on this matter, but - - -
Mrs Grassby: "I just cannot help it".
MR HUMPHRIES: Absolutely, I cannot help it. I must comment on Mrs Grassby's fine creativity.
Mr Collaery: Put it on, Gary.
MR HUMPHRIES: No, I am not going to put it on. For the Hansard record, Mrs Grassby has handed me a paper hat, which she has obviously carefully crafted whilst sitting here, no doubt listening to one of her colleagues speak on some matter. I will take that back and treasure it, Mrs Grassby, until my dying day.
Dr Kinloch: To the Ministry of Arts, Minister.
MR HUMPHRIES: Yes, perhaps to there; but perhaps not, Dr Kinloch. Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, I note the comments made by Mrs Grassby, but I still detect more bile in her comments than supportive remarks.
Mrs Grassby: We just do not trust you, Gary; let us be honest.
MR HUMPHRIES: That is what it boils down to; Mrs Grassby says that she does not trust us. Of course, she has also said, very clearly, that she wants to commend the good work of the Housing Trust in this area. I am sure the Minister would be the first to acknowledge that the Housing Trust has worked enthusiastically on the package that he announced a few weeks ago in this place, and is very enthusiastic about the prospects of success for this package. If I were a member of the Housing Trust I am sure I would see the great potential this package has to provide for a much fairer and more dynamic array and provision of public housing in the ACT.
The objectives outlined in this paper are ones that nobody could fail to support. I hope that the support that Mrs Grassby professes to give to this package overall will be conveyed publicly to the media rather than the carping criticism which unfortunately has characterised Labor's comments on this package to date. The fact is that there is far more to praise in this package than Mrs Grassby is prepared to say publicly, even though she says it, in effect, in this place.
This is a very important package. This is widely seen, I am sure, by people who rent premises from the public housing stock as an important objective and an important hope for them. It gives them the capacity, in due course, to own their own homes. And, irrespective of what Mrs
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