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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 12 Hansard (7 December) . . Page.. 3824 ..

The Assembly voted - 

Ayes, 8  	Noes, 9

Ms Carnell  	Mr Berry
Mr Cornwell  	Mr Corbell
Mr Hird  	Mr Hargreaves
Mr Humphries  	Mr Kaine
Mr Moore  	Mr Osborne
Mr Rugendyke  	Mr Quinlan
Mr Smyth  	Mr Stanhope
Mr Stefaniak  	Ms Tucker
 		Mr Wood




Question so resolved in the negative.
ASSEMBLY BUSINESS
 Suspension of Standing and Temporary Orders
MS TUCKER (11:59): I move:

That so much of the standing and temporary orders be suspended as would prevent:

(1)  order of the day No 50, Assembly business, relating to the Government's response to the report of the Select Committee on Public Housing, being called on forthwith; and

(2)  Ms Tucker again addressing the Assembly.

I do not know whether members will oppose this motion, but I think it is important that we have the opportunity today to continue the debate on the government's response to the report of the Select Committee on Public Housing, because today is the last sitting day for some considerable time. The minister for housing tabled the response only this week. The committee presented its report to this parliament in March 2000. It normally takes the government about three months to respond to a committee report. In this case it took nine months. I would like to know why. We had correspondence from Mr Smyth, when he was minister, to say that we would get a response by August, which we did not get. The response was tabled in this last sitting week of the year. This is such an important issue that we must have the opportunity to deal with the response now. 


I am very unhappy with the response. I want to ask the Assembly to address the issues that need raising, and I believe action has to be taken by the Assembly now. We should not have to wait until next year, because by that time the government will have initiated its reforms. They have landed this response on the Assembly at the end of the year. If we do not have the debate now, we will not be able to address the issues before the reforms mentioned in the response are put into place. 
MR MOORE (Minister for Health, Housing and Community Care) (12:01): We will be opposing the motion. The only reason I knew that this motion was coming on is that I read something in the paper this morning. Ms Tucker certainly has not spoken to me about it. She circulated the motion maybe an hour ago. This is the second time 





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