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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 5 Hansard (9 May) . . Page.. 1281 ..
MR OSBORNE: It all sounds very ominous for the housing tenants in Tuggeranong. Minister, can you now confirm that you will be running in Molonglo, not Brindabella, at the next election, given that it appears that you are not willing to stand up for your current electorate?
MR SMYTH: Mr Speaker-
MR SPEAKER: There is no question. That does not refer to your portfolio, minister.
MR SMYTH: It could have been answered by saying who got more primary votes in the Brindabella electorate at the last election.
MR WOOD: I have a question for the minister for housing, Mr Smyth. Minister, you know, as we all do, that maintenance is one of the most significant issues in public housing in the ACT. Many of the calls I receive and take through to your office are from constituents with problems concerning maintenance of their ACT Housing properties and the difficulty in keeping houses up to recognised standards. On departmental figures, not mine, the estimated cost of the maintenance backlog runs into millions of dollars. In September 1995 it was estimated to be $65 million. The 1998-99 ACT Housing ownership agreement states, "Requests from tenants for refurbishment continue to exceed the financial capacity of ACT Housing to supply."
Minister, from 1 July routine maintenance for existing tenants, as distinct from what has applied before with new tenants, will also come under the provisions of the Residential Tenancies Act. I would like to know and the tenants would like to know what provisions have been made to ensure that urgent and non-urgent maintenance will be done without tenants having to resort to the Residential Tenancies Tribunal-in fact, that ACT Housing will comply with the Residential Tenancies Act.
MR SMYTH: Mr Speaker, that was a good question from Mr Wood. I acknowledge his concern for the tenants of ACT Housing, as is the government concerned. Over the period that I have been minister for housing I have made no bones about the fact that the housing stock that we have is inadequate and does not meet the needs of our tenants. We have independent assessments that tell us that. One of the ironies of Canberra as the youngest capital in the country is that we have actually ended up with the oldest housing stock because that is what the Commonwealth gave us a decade ago. This government has been working very hard to make sure that the balance of stock is shifted from locations that are not necessary to ones where the tenants would like to be and that we actually change the nature of the stock to meet the needs of the tenants as well.
We have a huge number of old three-bedroom ex-guvvies whose tenants are now saying that they would prefer to be in townhouses or flats, one or two-bedroom accommodation. We are working on that. You can see that in the work that we are doing in renovating Macpherson Court, Lachlan Court and Burnie Court. We are trying to address those needs as best we can. The age of the stock and the inappropriate nature of the stock bring with them this backlog of maintenance and we are aware of that. We are also aware that under the Residential Tenancies Act we have obligations that will come into place on 1 July and we will be working to live within our commitments there.
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