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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 9 Hansard (22 November) . . Page.. 2278 ..

Housing Trust Services

MS TUCKER: Mr Speaker, my question is to Mr Stefaniak as Minister for Housing. Can the Government assure the Assembly that no further aspects of the Housing Trust operations will be privatised or contracted out? If there are plans to contract out or to privatise services, can the Minister provide a full list of these services and any jobs that will be lost?

MR STEFANIAK: A number of avenues currently being investigated in relation to more efficient use of services do, I understand, involve some potential for contracting out. I am happy to provide you with more information in relation to that, Ms Tucker, including any ramifications it may have on jobs. The staff, as always, have been kept informed in relation to any possible changes by the officials in the department.

MS TUCKER: I have a supplementary question. I will be waiting with interest to see that information. Can the Minister assure the Assembly that he will notify this place of any changes relating to contracting out or privatisation of Housing Trust services or assets prior to implementation?

MR STEFANIAK: I do not have a problem with that, Ms Tucker.

Consumer Scams

MR HIRD: Mr Speaker, I direct a question to the Minister for Consumer Affairs. Minister, I have received from certain Belconnen residents a query on what is called a scam. A number of these scams have appeared recently in Canberra, ranging from pyramid selling schemes and chain letters to plain rip-offs. Minister, what scams are you aware of and what is our Government doing about them?

MR HUMPHRIES: I thank Mr Hird for that question. He rightly draws attention to this issue. There are a number of scams floating around at the moment which I think we should all be concerned about. Two weeks ago I referred to a scam whereby people are encouraged to send a cheque to a post office box in Queensland for information on getting rich quick. If they do so, what they get back in return is a kit telling them to put an ad in the paper asking people to write in to them to get rich quick as well.

Mr Berry: It was not the taxi drivers. They lost $8m because of your muck-up on the taxi plates.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I think this is a matter of some concern to the whole community. We certainly recognise a get-rich-quick scheme when we see it. I am not sure that Mr VITAB over there does when - - -

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