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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 4 Hansard (29 March) . . Page.. 1168 ..

Mr Hargreaves: I take a point of order, Mr Speaker. The minister has suggested that you called upon me to withdraw the word "misled". You did not.

MR SMYTH: No, I did not. You should listen.

Mr Humphries: He did not.

Mr Hargreaves: I seek your protection, Mr Speaker, from the raucous interjections from the idiots across the chamber.

MR SPEAKER: Order, please! We established that the reference was made in relation to the public. He was not suggesting that the minister was misleading this house.

Mr Hargreaves: Would you please direct the minister to answer the supplementary question?

MR SPEAKER: I can ask the minister to answer it, but how he answers it is entirely his prerogative.

MR SMYTH: Mr Speaker, I have said that the member is clearly confused. He makes a mistake about the different sorts of services that the ambulance crews provide, the characteristics of the different vehicles that they use and where those services are located. I have said that I will get him full information on the number of ambulance sites, the number of crews that we have and the number of vehicles so that he can clear it up in his own mind.

Housing statistics

MR WOOD: Mr Speaker, my question to Mr Moore, the Minister for Health, Housing and Community Services, relates to difficulties many have in finding a house to live in. Minister, in response to a statement of mine about a fortnight ago you issued a press release claiming that my housing figures were wrong. I claimed that ACT Housing had reduced its number of properties by more than 500 over two years. I was deliberately cautious and modest in what I said. On ACT Housing's figures, according to the 1998-99 ownership agreement ACT Housing had 12,215 properties as at 30 April 1998. Further, the 1999-00 ownership agreement states that stock numbers are expected to decline from an estimated 11,992 to 11,573 by 30 June 2000. According to Housing management reports, the true figure in June was lower-11,463. Further, the 2000-01 ownership agreement states:

Stock levels are expected to decline as the age of the stock declines ...

Those figures, of course, are inclusive of acquisitions.

More than that, yesterday the Auditor-General's report prompted me to respond to something that I thought was over. At page 114 the report says of Housing that the number of dwellings fell by 313 during 1999-2000. That is just one year and I have spread my figures over two years. So, minister, there has been actually a drop of nearly 800 units. I was talking about more than single's accommodation. Where are my figures wrong? I have been using Housing figures-where are they wrong?

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