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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 7 Hansard (1 July) . . Page.. 2008 ..

Mr Kaine: Speaking to the point of order, Mr Speaker, I think that in a sense it is irrelevant whether you hear it. If a member makes an offensive remark and it is heard by the person to whom it is directed, that person is entitled to ask that it be withdrawn. Mr Moore has admitted that the remark was made. I think that you should require him to withdraw it. If he refuses to do so, Mr Speaker, you have powers that you can exercise under the standing orders.

Mr Moore: Mr Speaker, just to put the chamber at ease, I will clarify for the chamber that I did not call Mr Quinlan a liar. Mr Speaker, I referred to Mr Stanhope as a liar and I withdraw that so that the chamber can move on.

MR SPEAKER: I am not sure that you are all going to be quite so perky at about 5 o'clock tomorrow morning when you are still here.

Mr Stanhope: I take a point of order, Mr Speaker. Mr Moore directed his comment at Mr Quinlan. He said to Mr Quinlan and of Mr Quinlan, "That is a lie".

MR SPEAKER: Mr Moore has withdrawn. I uphold Mr Kaine's comments. I agree with him. If I do not rule something out of order because I do not hear it, we will have chaos in this place. I call Mr Quinlan.

MR QUINLAN: My question, Mr Speaker, is to the Minister for Urban Services and relates to his backflip on Uriarra Village and the capacity for people to buy houses there. Could the Minister enlighten the Assembly on what conditions have been applied? It was mentioned in the newspapers that if the houses are not sold they will be put on the market. Is there a time limit? It was said that the Government would not maintain or pay for the water supply beyond December 2000. Are there any other conditions - material conditions - attaching to this particular backflip?

MR SMYTH: Mr Speaker, when the Government made its announcement about Uriarra, it said that it had two objectives. The first objective was that we would not have to spend $3m on upgrading infrastructure and housing. The second was that we would withdraw public housing from Uriarra Village. That is still happening. There is not a backflip here at all. Having spoken with the residents, who have put forward some different options, I have agreed that we will explore some options to see whether those residents can stay there. Part of it will involve changing the infrastructure - going to water tanks, putting appropriate guttering on the houses, looking at what could occur with the sewerage. I will have some further work done and meet again with the residents. If we can come to some arrangement, we will. But the Government certainly has not backflipped. There will be no public housing there by the year 2000 and we will not be upgrading the infrastructure.

MR SPEAKER: Do you have a supplementary question, Mr Quinlan?

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