Page 1213 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 24 June 1992
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An uncertainty about this whole matter, Madam Speaker, is the question of how many people have in fact been found to be unable to pay their essential services accounts. Because of the lack of time, we have been unable to make our own assessment of this. There are also many questions concerning probable abuse of the leniency provisions of this Bill. It must be remembered that there are many people hurting out there. They are finding it very hard to weather this recession we all had to have. This means that many people would see themselves as qualifying for leniency. While we would naturally like to see genuine cases of hardship assisted, there will, without question, be a huge demand on the proposed Essential Services Review Committee. We want to know more about this.
There is a question of communicating effectively and accurately the assistance available to people through this Bill. This is an extremely important aspect that will require a lot of very careful consideration, and it is another matter that we have not been briefed on. Madam Speaker, the greatest danger of legislating to offer assistance to people is that it is a very overt and high profile way of letting people know, and it can have the tendency to build an expectation in the community that if things get tough the Government will bail them out.
The bottom line in all of this, of course, is that if the Government adopted a sensible approach in running the finances of the Territory the charges on people would be less. But here we have the ludicrous situation of the Government on the same day, on the one hand, presenting a Bill that will increase charges and, on the other, recognising that times are tough and offering people leniency in paying their essential services accounts. It is all a bit topsy-turvy; but with a roller-coaster-type government you never quite know what is up ahead and you will never be on a level plane until the end, and that is when you are going to tell about the rotten ride.
Madam Speaker, we would rather see this Bill debated after proper consultation, and we recommend that this debate be adjourned until the August sittings.
Mr Connolly: Until the end of winter.
MR WESTENDE: Mr Connolly said that it will be the end of winter, Madam Speaker; but I reminded him earlier in my speech that ACTEW has leniency provisions in place to take care of hardship situations. People undergoing hardship will find assistance available to them under existing leniency policies adopted by government bodies. At present, we do not support the Bill.
MR MOORE (4.58): I rise with great pleasure to support the Bill and to support what I consider to be the urgency of the guaranteed supply of essential services. The situation that currently exists gives the legal right to the providers of electricity, reticulated gas and telephone services to disconnect the service for non-payment of the account. Over the past two years, the number of people in the ACT community suffering extreme hardship due to poverty and unemployment has increased at an alarming rate. Where a household is in serious financial difficulty, disconnection of an essential service can cause further hardship and put at risk the health and safety of members of the household. The lack of essential services can disproportionately burden the very young, the very
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