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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 11 Hansard (9 December) . . Page.. 3375 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

As to the all-up strategy, I have sitting next to me the former Minister for Housing, who, I think, did a tremendous job in prompting the community to look at the needs of public housing, particularly how we manage the big flats. Members might or might not be aware that we have 29 multisite complexes with more than 40 units. We call those our big flats. There are 29 sites across the ACT that are part of the big flats. Many would be aware of the major names. I am sure we have all heard of Burnie Court and Lachlan Court.

Each has different needs. We have a strategy in the short term to address those needs. We are constantly talking with the residents. We have programs in place there to look at issues such as their safety and security, where we liaise with the AFP. There is a continual process to upgrade the stock. Recently, we upgraded 228 dwellings at the Allawah and Bega flats. We are replacing the heating systems at the Northbourne Flats. We have done landscaping at Corryton Gardens in North Lyneham. We have upgraded sewerage at the aged persons units at Braddon. The list goes on and on.

Currently, we are looking at the needs of tenants long term. We are looking at where they want to live and in what sort of housing they want to live, instead of saying, "You just have to live in the houses that we provide". We are making sure that our stock matches their needs. We are making sure that the sometimes unhealthy concentrations that occur in some of the big flats are broken up, if possible. All of these things take time. We are working towards that and we are developing a strategy that we will implement as soon as we can.

As to a formal announcement and a date, this strategy is continuous. It is not something that will just stop and start in a defined period; the whole process continues. We are looking towards improving the accommodation that we provide to all our tenants all the time. A major part of that, of course, will be consultation with the existing tenants.

MR WOOD: I wish to ask a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. I am anxious to get a particular date here and I want to make the aside that I do not think the McPherson Court consultations were necessarily the best. They were not bad. The fact is that ACT Housing is working on plans for some of these complexes. Staff are in their offices working diligently on plans, but the tenants do not know what those plans are. Contrary to what happened at McPherson Court, they ought to be told at this stage. So, I am looking for a commitment. Bearing in mind that the Christmas period is coming up, will you give a commitment to go to Burnie Court and Lachlan Court - I hear what you say about Northbourne Flats - by mid-February and say, "Look, this is what we are thinking about. This is how far we have gone. What do you reckon"? Could that be done?

MR SMYTH: Mr Speaker, I will not pre-empt when the strategy will be ready. We are making sure that we get the strategy right. It involves a large number of our tenants. It may vary from unit to unit. As I have said, there are 29 of these sites. How we release that information will be appropriate at the time. The needs of the various complexes vary from things like the age of the units to the siting of the units and the efficiency of the units. The important thing here is the needs of the tenants. The tenants are now telling us, according to our surveys, that where people wish to live is not necessarily where we have holdings. Some of the sites that we offer people simply because they are the only

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