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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 5 Hansard (10 May) . . Page.. 1374 ..

MR STEFANIAK: Mr Osborne, in terms of an overall monitoring of every single classroom, I am obviously responsible for monitoring all sorts of things that occur in schools, including that. I do thank you for bringing the question to my attention. I have been aware of some problems with airconditioning on occasions. Normally, it is something that is rectified. For example, I have been aware on occasions of airconditioning units that have gone down and caused a problem for up to a day in a school because, for some reason, it cannot be fixed immediately. That has had an effect on classroom operations and other measures have been taken within the school to ensure that students and staff are not adversely discomforted. That is of crucial importance to students and the staff in terms of occupational health and safety. It is something that occasionally comes to my attention. I can assure you that if there are any problems I will do what I can to see that they are properly rectified, as indeed the schools do. If there are any specific problems over and above what we occasionally see, they are certainly things that need attending to and I thank you for bringing them to my attention.

Mr Osborne: I take a point of order, Mr Speaker. I think that Mr Stefaniak has missed the point. I was speaking more particularly about those demountables that do not have airconditioning rather than those Mr Stefaniak has been speaking about.

MR STEFANIAK: No, I appreciate that, Mr Osborne. You referred specifically to demountables. That is certainly something I will keep an eye on. I thank you for bringing that to my attention in relation specifically to demountables.

MR WOOD: Mr Speaker, my question is to the minister for housing. Minister, yesterday you described how ACT Housing is disposing of some stock, either to reduce maintenance costs or to increase stock in popular areas. One such house that has recently been put on the market is at 65 Tyson Street, Ainslie. I understand that, in accordance with procedures, 65 Tyson Street was put up for auction, but was handed in when it failed to reach the reserve price. It was then advertised on a Saturday and a prospective buyer saw the house and immediately paid a deposit of $1,000 on the full advertised price. However, on Monday morning this buyer was rung and told that there had been a higher offer and he could no longer buy the house. He had been gazumped.

Minister, according to an article in the Canberra Times on 17 April, the property law committee of the ACT Law Society is looking at ways of reducing gazumping in the ACT. Gazumping is not illegal, but in the article the Attorney-General's office acknowledged that it is an ethical issue. Mr Adam Moore, General Manager of the Real Estate Institute of the ACT, also said in the article, "It is the vendor's decision whether to stick to the non-binding agreement."

Mr Berry: So the government is into gazumping.

MR WOOD: Indeed. Quite clearly, the practice of gazumping is widely regarded as undesirable and unethical, not only in the broader community, but amongst the legal and real estate communities. Minister, why then are you allowing your department to use practices that so many in the community condemn as unethical?

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