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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 3 Hansard (7 March) . . Page.. 603 ..

MR WOOD: Mr Speaker, my question is to the Minister for Urban Services and is in respect of housing. It has two parts to it. Is that too much?

MR SPEAKER: I will be the judge of that, Mr Wood.

MR WOOD: I am sure that Mr Smyth will understand it, but whether he will answer it is another matter. Minister, let me take you back to your answer to a question in this chamber a couple of weeks ago about Reid Court, which is up the road from here. You said then that you had difficulty in getting the right mix of older people who would fit into that community. You also referred to a problem with filling the first floor. Firstly, have you been able to find tenants for the vacant ground floor units, and there are some vacant ones? There should be no difficulty, given the present shortage of rental accommodation in Canberra. Secondly, if you think that there is a problem about there being one flight of stairs - remember, you said that the second floor is very hard for older people to utilise - what do you intend to do about the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of older public housing tenants who live up one or more flights of stairs?

MR SMYTH: Mr Speaker, as Mr Wood would be well aware, tenants are offered accommodation as they come to the top of the list and they have the right to refuse it. The Government tries to meet tenants' needs where it can.

Mr Wood: Answer the question or sit him down, Mr Speaker.

MR SMYTH: It is the answer to the question. You might not like the answer, but the answer to the question is that there is a process - - -

Opposition members interjected.

MR SPEAKER: It is also true that he can hardly answer the question if he is being constantly interjected upon.

MR SMYTH: They choose to ignore standing order 61, Mr Speaker; they do it all the time. The reality is that there is a process in place whereby a tenant who comes to the head of the list is offered accommodation that meets their needs. Tenants have the right to refuse it. Mr Wood may make light of there being one flight of stairs, but for some of our older tenants having one flight of stairs is something that presents incredible difficulty for them. I will have to seek information on how many people have been offered a ground floor flat and tell Mr Wood later.

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

MR WOOD: Yes, Mr Speaker. I will await that response about the ground floor units, in particular, and the second floor units. Minister, I was really pointing out the inanity and evasiveness of your first answer a couple of weeks ago. The real point of that question and this supplementary is: Will you tell us what the strategic assets management plan has to say about Reid Court?

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