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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 11 Hansard (6 November) . . Page.. 3733 ..

MS REILLY: I think it would have been better if you had ruled the other way. I think Mr Stefaniak knows a lot more about ACT Housing tenants.

MR SPEAKER: I will rule you out of order in a minute if you do not get on with asking the supplementary question.

MS REILLY: I ask for clarification, Mr Speaker. Am I asking this of Mr Humphries or Mr Stefaniak?

MR SPEAKER: You are asking it, presumably, of Mr Humphries. He answered the first question. You can hardly ask a supplementary question of somebody else.

MS REILLY: In his answer Mr Humphries seemed to talk about the ACT Council on the Ageing helping with this. Of course they are. They are being funded, Mr Humphries. You failed to mention that. You talked about considering an ACT specific scheme. It sounds like there is already a scheme in place; that you are not considering it. You talked about safeguarding the family home. Are you aware, Minister, that both schemes - the one that was announced yesterday by your Chief Minister and the one that Mr Howard, who also takes on other ministerial responsibilities, announced last night - exclude non-property owners? That is why I was asking about the impact of these schemes on ACT Housing tenants. You cannot answer for the Federal Government; but why is it that your Government, which announced this scheme yesterday, considers that the fees to be paid for nursing home entry are a bigger impost on home owners than what will be an impost on those who do not own their own homes? What are you doing for those people?

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I think Ms Reilly needs to chill out a bit, to relax a bit, over these sorts of issues.

Mr Corbell: Answer the question.

MR HUMPHRIES: Yes, certainly, Mr Speaker Corbell.

Ms McRae: Mr Speaker, under what standing order is the Minister allowed to provide gratuitous advice?

MR HUMPHRIES: Oh, dear!

MR SPEAKER: Proceed, Mr Humphries.

MR HUMPHRIES: The same one that allows those sorts of interjections, Ms McRae. Mr Speaker, to reassure Ms Reilly that these issues have been addressed by the ACT Government, I can indicate that nursing home issues should not affect public housing tenants differently from any other ACT residents. They should be in the same position as they would be if they were, for example, for argument's sake, a private housing tenant.

Ms Reilly: They cannot borrow against a family home. They do not have one.

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