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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 12 Hansard (13 November) . . Page.. 4107 ..

Opposition members: Oh, oh!

MR STEFANIAK: Well might you go, "Oh, oh!". You can groan all you like.

MR SPEAKER: That is not an answer.

MR STEFANIAK: It is not an answer, but Ms McRae is talking semantics. If by "plan" you mean a lovely document with all the frills attached, which could be described as a plan, no, we do not have such a document. But yes, we certainly have a plan. Maybe "strategy" would be a better word, Ms McRae. You might remember, as part of that strategy - - -

Ms Reilly: Why did you call it a plan in the newsletter? Do you lie to your tenants?

MR STEFANIAK: Will you be quiet. It is terribly important to put enough money into maintenance so that we can actually do things like plan ahead long-term maintenance, strategic maintenance of properties. If you look at the budget this year, there is about an extra $7.9m all up for maintenance of all kinds, including planned maintenance - planned maintenance, rather than just ad hoc maintenance and reacting to crises. That is certainly something that Housing is developing, to ensure that we can be proactive; that we can go in there and actually improve properties.

Mr Whitecross: Without a plan, though.

MR STEFANIAK: You do not need a document for everything, Mr Whitecross; you do not need a single document saying, "This is the plan". We have a strategy; we have a course of action; we have put money specifically into our budgets to ensure it can be carried out; and we have a long list of properties - and I have said this a number of times in this house - where we are doing some very substantial planned maintenance. We also have a significant amount of funds for things such as emergency maintenance. I think I have already gone through the amount of money that we have been spending on maintenance, which is considerably more than this lot opposite did. I think that is very significant and is certainly something that is greatly appreciated by our tenants.

MS McRAE: I have a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. Mr Stefaniak, currently ACT Housing tenants are being promised things like, "Your roof will be fixed by Christmas", "The drains will be fixed by Easter", with no better indication of when the work will actually be done. Minister, as there seems to be no planned maintenance program of any kind, will you now change the ACT Housing message to, "It will be fixed after the election."?

MR STEFANIAK: Ms McRae, just to give you some of those figures again: I mentioned that this time about $7.9m more than last time is being spent; we spend some $7m on general repair work and $8m on a painting program and things such as replacement of windows at Bega and Allawah Flats; capital improvements to 220 properties; things like upgrading of kitchens and wet areas; and increasing the energy rating of the Ainslie aged persons flats to four-star. All of those things are part of rolling property maintenance. We have established also a rolling five-year property maintenance inspection program, commencing this year.

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