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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 9 Hansard (23 November) . . Page.. 2504 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

(Quorum formed) Instead of taking a long time and filling out five forms, we are now piloting such things as one form. You go to the counter and you will be able to talk to someone about your problem pretty well straightaway, within a few minutes. It is a user-friendly service.

I recently launched a scheme whereby every household will receive a little booklet in which they can tick off what maintenance they think they need, give an inventory of their property and list what they think needs fixing. Again, that is user friendly. Ms McRae, we are not going to take the Tom Uren approach which is that you do not pay any rent, it is yours for free. Of course we are not. People have responsibilities, as they have rights, and we treat our housing tenants very well. They pay a certain percentage of their income in rent, whether they are on a pension or a part pension, or whether they are full-fee-paying commercial tenants. As I have quoted before, 13 per cent or so of our tenants do pay commercial rates; 69 per cent, I think, are on full pensions, and about 18 per cent are on part pensions. They have variable rates, and it all depends on their income.

We are the biggest landlord in Canberra. Yes, we are tied into the Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement, which does cause some problems in terms of flexibility. I am pleased to see that Mr Howe at least floated a scheme, which is option B, at the Commonwealth and State Housing Ministers conference. Hopefully, that will be developed, because it will improve the lot of our public tenants and improve the flexibility of the Housing Trust in the ACT to manage its affairs. I think we have established a number of very good reforms, such as putting in smoke detectors throughout our Housing Trust homes. One of the earlier Government speakers spoke of how that is progressing over two years. The Fire Brigade is putting them in. They have been put into a number of places already, and that is absolutely essential. It is very important because it does help save lives. We have had, unfortunately, a few fires and a few people have died who may not have died had those smoke detectors been put in.

Ms McRae, we certainly are not going to tolerate people who thumb their noses at the system. You have seen the media reports about such things as the horror house in Macgregor and so on. No, we are not going to tolerate that, and if people absolutely thumb their noses at us, trash a place, never pay rent, or have absolutely no regard for the system or for their responsibilities, yes, of course we will take action, as it seems even your Government did. Also, we are very mindful of providing a decent service to our clients. It is true to say that we adopt an approach of being fair, firm and friendly. That is something that, as Minister, I am very keen to encourage, and I am pleased to see that it is happening. I am pleased also to see that, overwhelmingly, the response of our tenants, and I think of the general community, is very positive. I think the Housing Trust now has a very good name, even in the general community.

As to the inspections, it is not a question of going in and telling people how to do things. It is important to see what our stock is like and to make sure that people are doing the right thing. There are some people who do not, and they need to be pulled into line.

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