Page 816 - Week 03 - Thursday, 25 March 1993
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Mr De Domenico: I rise on a point of order, Madam Speaker. I suggest that the word "Nazi-style" is something which Mr Moore might care to reconsider.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Moore, I would prefer it if you would reconsider that and perhaps withdraw it. We had "Goebbels-speak" withdrawn.
MR MOORE: Madam Speaker, I withdraw "Nazi-style". I repeat: Does it include pointing the finger and marginalising them from a position of privilege and power? Where do you think they should live if the Housing Trust follows your advice and turfs them out?
MR CORNWELL: I must say, Madam Speaker, that I am surprised that the question came from my right. I would have thought that perhaps the Labor Party would have done their own questioning on this issue.
Mr Kaine: You mean "their own dirty work".
MR CORNWELL: Yes, that is right. They have obviously got Mr Moore to do it for them. I do not withdraw those comments at all, Madam Speaker. There is a minority of social miscreants within Housing Trust properties. If Mr Moore would like to come and answer my telephone on a few occasions he would hear some quite horrendous tales of single mothers living in Housing Trust properties who are frightened and concerned about wild parties going on around them; about alcoholism; and about finding used needles in stairwells and in various areas where their children are wont to play. I do not find that a very satisfactory situation. I would imagine that the Government does not find that a very satisfactory situation. I am pretty sure that the Minister for Housing does not find that very satisfactory either.
The people who are causing these problems to decent Housing Trust tenants - who are in the majority - are the social miscreants I am speaking of, Mr Moore. I believe that some action has to be taken in the interests of the vast majority of Housing Trust tenants, so that they can live in some safety and, certainly, with some decency rather than be subjected to this sort of brutal attack - at least mentally, if not physically. I ask you to come along some time, because I would be happy to open my files for you to look at. Maybe you would like to talk to some of those people and ask them the question that you asked me - to see the result and the response that you get.
I resile from nothing. I believe that this matter has to be addressed by the Housing Trust. It is quite possible that, if the trust were prepared to take much firmer action in relation to a lot of these people, the problem would not be as great. Part of the difficulty with the trust is that they have no routine examination of trust properties. Therefore, half the time they do not know what is going on. In fact, they know only about 30 per cent of the household structures of their trust properties. They do not know how many people are living in the rest of them. The point I am making here is that, if the trust did chase this up and come down harder on this type of behaviour, most of it would simply go away. People are getting away with these things because they are allowed to get away with them. You would be left with a very small minority of people who might be difficult. If that were the case, I believe that we could then address the question of that particularly small group of people and perhaps look at accommodating them in one particular area.
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