Page 2036 - Week 07 - Thursday, 16 June 1994
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Mr Moore: Deal with the issues Ms Szuty raised.
MR LAMONT: I do not intend to cover the issues that were raised, Mr Moore, because they have no validity. If we criticise the processes that ACTEW have applied, then each one of those processes can be tested by this Assembly. That is not so in relation to these alleged - and I emphasise "alleged" - expert opinions. Their veracity cannot be tested within this Assembly. Madam Speaker, I suggest to you that the veracity of the issues represented by ACTEW in this proposal has not been countered by either Mr Moore or Ms Szuty.
Mr Moore: Fortunately, you are not the one judging that.
MR LAMONT: We are all judging it, Mr Moore, as is appropriate. I know that you, Ms Szuty, Mr Stevenson, members opposite and the Government accept that that is the role of this Assembly.
We have already had a rigorous community consultation process. The issues associated with the new strategy arising out of that are overwhelmingly supported in our community. In accepting that basic premise - and I think that we can; I think that that is in fact the case - we need to look at a number of the issues that have been raised by ACTCOSS. For example, they say that public tenants who currently pay for excess water will receive absolutely no benefit if by conserving water they reduce their consumption to below the allowable limit of 350 kilolitres. In those circumstances the Government has undertaken that we will continue to charge beyond the 350 kilolitres, but we will provide rebates to Housing Trust tenants in stand-alone houses where meters can verify usage. That is an undertaking we have already given.
Now we go to the next issue raised - pensioner rebates. Ms Szuty and Mr Moore said, "But a pensioner is entitled to 390 kilolitres before they start paying the excess". In my view, that is appropriate. If it were otherwise, the first thing that Mr Moore would stand up here and say is, "Look what you have done. You are disadvantaging the pensioners in the community". By increasing the level to 65 per cent we made sure that no such accusation could be made and that no pensioner would be worse off under these new arrangements. I believe that that is a socially responsible position for us to adopt.
In looking at the total strategy, there is one flaw - that is, what happens in the private sector. I do not have a big enough stick, Mr Moore, to go out and say to private landlords, "I am going to beat you over the head unless, by reducing your rent, you pass on the reduction in the fixed cost that we are proposing". I believe that all rental tenants in the ACT should be screaming at their landlords from 1 July this year to reduce their rental rates.
Mr Kaine: Including the Housing Trust?
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .