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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 4 Hansard (25 June) . . Page.. 1150 ..

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY QUESTION

QUESTION NO 16

ACT Housing Tenant - Cost of Dispute

Mr Wood - asked the Minister for Urban Services:

(1) What is now the cost over the last five years of all aspects (eg FOI, legal advice, court appearances, staff time) arising from the dispute.

Mr Smyth - the answer to the Member's question is as follows:

(1) Mr Wood asked this question in April 1996 and a copy of the Minister's response is at Attachment A.

From April 1996 to date, ACT Housing has received four primary requests for information under the FOI Act. From these requests, four internal reviews were sought. Mr Munday appealed to the AAT on the outcome of two of the internal reviews.

All Mr Munday's requests were related to his personal affairs. There is no requirement under the FOI Act to keep records on time spent processing these requests as no charges were applicable. In view of this and resource constraints, no register of costs was kept. It would be impossible now to calculate the time and resources consumed by the Department in dealing with these matters.

In addition, Mr Munday has forwarded correspondence, independent of his FOI requests, to ACT Housing and has made telephone contact with a number of ACT Housing officers. Time records have not been maintained with regard to dealing with these contacts.

A record of costs incurred by the ACT Government Solicitor's Office for matters concerning Mr Munday and ACT Housing is at Attachment B.

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