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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 8 Hansard (27 August) . . Page.. 2547 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

although we have appropriate assurances from the Government. I suppose in my own mind there are still underlying concerns that we may not have appropriate policing of the leasehold system in order to maintain temporary care units for the very purposes for which they are designed. I do not think any member of the committee objected to the notion of relocatable units or habitable suites. They are quite important.

Mr Berry: I would give that committee up, Michael. Give it up. Give it to somebody who cares.

MR MOORE: Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, can you protect me?

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Hird): Mr Moore, there are lots of things you need, but I am sure that you do not need protection. Besides, interjections are not allowed in this chamber.

MR MOORE: Thank you, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker. I feel much better now. It seems to me that the committee was pleased that the Government had met these needs, although we will be still monitoring carefully to see that this variation is dealt with in the appropriate spirit and that such units are used for very specific purposes for a limited amount of time. I hope that they will be useful to people. In fact, just the other day somebody approached me to say, "How soon is this going through?". They are waiting to proceed down this path and to - - -

Ms McRae: Get Granny out of the basement.

MR MOORE: In fact, it was not to stick Granny in the basement this time, or even to bring her out of the basement, but to ensure that their own future was set for retired people to be able to live with other members of their family. I am very fortunate to have extended family around me in the suburb where I live. Perhaps with a bit more of the extended family we would see less of the range of social problems that are so difficult to deal with in our society. Hopefully, this will just help a little bit in that way as well.

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General and Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning) (4.25): This report is probably an illustration of what Mr Moore was talking about in addressing the previous report, when he spoke of the need perhaps to make a decision against a background of limited consultation. I think there were very few public submissions on this matter, and some were from people who supply such accommodation in the form of demountable buildings.

Mr Moore: They had a vested interest, effectively.

MR HUMPHRIES: They had a vested interest. However, I think it is equally true, as Mr Moore alluded to, that there will be those who will complain when those sorts of habitations appear in the backyard of their neighbours. This is an issue which will certainly come back and - - -

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