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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 9 Hansard (28 August) . . Page.. 2675 ..

Mr Berry: So you are not going to support my amendment to put $10.4m back into the budget and fix up those problems, Mr Osborne? Outrageous!

MR OSBORNE: The same as the $3.5m would have fixed up education last year.

Mr Moore: But would Labor do it?

MR OSBORNE: No, they would not. Mr Speaker, the maintenance situation is very disappointing for me. I visited a young family in Wanniassa who lived in a three-bedroom house. They had five children, and their heater was on the blink. I must admit that it was very distressing for me, as someone with young children, to walk into that house and see children the same age as mine running around inside their house in parkas and gloves. I was very disappointed to hear the response from the department that the heating in that place was adequate. While I was talking, I could see the frost coming out of my mouth. It was very sad. I am very thankful that at least I can keep my kids warm at night.

Mr Speaker, I think it would be silly of us to set parameters, knowing full well that there will be a new Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement in the near future. I think it would be silly of us to force the Government to abide by certain rules when in actual fact the Commonwealth could change it all around on us in a very short time. I am very sympathetic to what Ms Reilly is trying to achieve here. Housing is one issue that is very dear to me and one that keeps my office very busy. Unfortunately, due to the fact that there will be a change to the Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement shortly and the fact that the Labor Party has given me no choice other than to vote against Mr Berry's proposed amendment, that is the way that I will be voting when the time comes.

MR MOORE (11.40): I would like to rise to concur with my Independent colleague, Mr Paul Osborne, for a number of reasons. The most fundamental of those is what is going on with the Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement. The Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement, we know, is undergoing review, interestingly in the way suggested by Mr Brian Howe, a left-wing member of the Labor caucus and a person for whom I have a great deal of admiration. However, in this particular instance I think Mr Howe got it wrong. Indeed, my understanding is that when he tried to achieve the sorts of changes that are now being proposed it was the Labor caucus and the Labor Cabinet that actually told him that he had got it wrong and that they were not prepared to change it. From my perspective, Mr Howe deserves a great deal of credit.

However, it does appear that the sorts of proposals that were being put up by Mr Howe are now being flagged for the new Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement, except that we do not know. To pass a motion that would put in place a set of parameters as to what our Government can and cannot do, when we do not know what will be in the new Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement, would be entirely inappropriate. We may need to come back and revisit this and see how much room we have to move.

Let us look at the current Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement, because that certainly has some important issues. It seems to me, from my reading of Ms Reilly's motion, that it does not actually achieve anything beyond what the current Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement achieves. Ms Reilly may be able to correct me on that when she exercises her right of reply, but that is certainly how it looks to me.

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