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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 8 Hansard (26 August) . . Page.. 2516 ..

MR SMYTH: We always jump to relevance when we are offended by the truth. They cannot match us on our performance, our policy or personnel in this place.

Ms Carnell: Mr Speaker, I ask that all further questions be placed on the notice paper.

MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, I would like to provide some more information on Mr Berry's unfortunate question before. Apparently there was some confusion over whether Mr Murphy's trailer was legally removed by rangers, so it was returned without charge. The apparent legal anomaly has now been rectified. I think it is appropriate right now to make it clear to this Assembly and the people of Canberra that I believe that Mr Murphy is a truly great Canberran, somebody who does his job at CanTrade at no cost to the taxpayer, somebody who contributes significant time to entities such as the Smith Family and the Catholic Church and to many other charities. He has my total support.

MR SMYTH: Mr Wood asked a question yesterday about Community Housing Canberra and I have some further information for him. Community Housing Canberra was set up by the Government to expand the community housing sector in the ACT. The Government agreed to transfer 200 properties to Community Housing for management between July 1998 and December 1999, at the rate of approximately 30 per quarter. As at 20 August 1999, 96 properties have been formally leased to CHC, agreement has been reached on a further 26, and CHC are negotiating with ACT Housing on another 18, bringing the total to 140 properties. This leaves 60 properties to be transferred to meet the target of 200 by December. Given that dwellings in multi-site units are soon to commence being transferred, the program is well on target.

Mr Wood, in a supplementary question, went on to ask what training is being given to community organisations to manage these properties. Mr Speaker, as part of the service purchasing contract between the Territory and Community Housing Canberra, a management fee of $2,858 per property per annum is paid for properties transferred. This fee is paid on the basis of the number of properties managed by the provider at the end of each quarter. As part of this contract CHC is required to assist with the establishment of new and existing community based providers and further develop the sector to assist it to grow and provide quality, cost effective and efficient housing management services to their tenants, as well as assist the community based housing providers to gain the skills necessary to provide effective housing management services.

To achieve these requirements, Community Housing Canberra has initiated a sector development plan which provides for forums to be conducted on a monthly basis to facilitate the development of community housing organisations. Some topics that either have been or are to be covered include rent policy, insurance, tenant participation, measuring tenant satisfaction, data collection, the Residential Tenancies Act and

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