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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 12 Hansard (13 November) . . Page.. 4106 ..

MR SPEAKER: Order! You are now beginning to debate the matter. The question related to the inquiry.

MS TUCKER: That is fine; okay. Basically, the point I am trying to make, Mr Speaker, is that we have a problem in the ACT. That is why I am continuing to leave these items on the notice paper.

MR SPEAKER: One would assume, if you were going to investigate it, madam, that there was a problem.

MS TUCKER: The question that Mr Moore asked - and this is very important information that I am sure the Assembly is very interested in - related to the reason that I have not withdrawn these items from the notice paper. The reason is that, while I applaud the voluntary code that Mrs Carnell has presented and there has been a quite good consultation process within that and all stakeholders were involved, I was very concerned to see that within it there was no evaluative process. A voluntary code may or may not work; but we need to be able to determine whether or not it works. That is not actually possible with the existing voluntary code. So, I felt it was very important that we have this debate and that was why I still have these items on the notice paper.

MR MOORE: Mr Speaker, I have a supplementary question for Ms Tucker. Has your decision to leave these items on the notice paper been further influenced by your awareness that, on the one hand, Mr Osborne, sitting next to me, has stood aside from voting on such issues, to avoid any perception of conflict of interest; and, on the other hand, there are others you might be aware of who have some level of conflict of interest associated with any income from gambling? This might apply, for example, to candidates at the next election or members of this Assembly.

MS TUCKER: I think this is an interesting supplementary question, because I understand that at the moment the Labor Club, the Tradesmen's Union Club and the Workers Club are all seen to have some connection with the Labor Party. I think last month it was at least $3m that had been brought in. I think this is indeed an issue of concern.

MS McRAE: My question is to the Minister for Housing, Mr Stefaniak. Minister, last week in answer to a question in relation to ACT Housing announcing, to its approximately 12,000 tenants, they had developed a long-term maintenance plan, you answered:

There may not be a plan as such.

I also remind you that the Liberal Party released a housing policy statement during the 1995 campaign - I know it is a long time ago - in which you promised that you would require the trust to develop a comprehensive plan for improved maintenance of all properties at reduced cost. Minister, has ACT Housing developed a comprehensive long-term maintenance plan or not; or is this yet another broken election promise?

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