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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 10 Hansard (29 August) . . Page.. 3029 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

History shows us that that is what has happened here. The previous government sold off hundreds and hundreds of houses and of units, it applied the funds, as it is required to under the Commonwealth-state housing arrangements, to public housing, but it did not increase the numbers in any significant way at all. And that is the legacy that we have. In government, we have applied around $16 million to maintain the public housing stock that we have, to provide just some simple basic fire safety preventative measures. It really is a major worry that our significant public housing-the Currong and Bega flats-do not have fire detectors. Not only do they not have fire detectors, but I believe they do not have fire safety systems of any sort, other than hoses. We are applying $16 million to provide that urgent and overdue attention that our public housing stock requires, and that is a major challenge that we have inherited from the years of neglect of the previous government. They are obligations that we accept and that we are moving on. This government will deliver in relation to public housing, although the challenges are great.

MR QUINLAN (Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development, Business and Tourism, Minister for Sport, Racing and Gaming and Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Corrections) (12.24): Just very briefly, I just want to pick up on the fractured logic that Mr Smyth occasionally brings into this place. I am reminded, with schoolchildren in the Assembly, that you might have stayed at school a bit longer, Mr Smyth. But, if you had increased expenditure by 40 per cent, to match that would be to continue at the same absolute level. To increase expenditure beyond that, is to either surpass or excel.

Proposed expenditure agreed to.

Debate interrupted in accordance with standing order 74 and the resumption of the debate made an order of the day for a later hour.

Sitting suspended from 12.26 to 2.30 pm.

Questions without notice

Prison and remand centre

MR HUMPHRIES: My question is to the Treasurer, Mr Quinlan, in his capacity as minister for corrective services. Minister, your spokeswoman was quoted in the Canberra Times last Monday in the following terms:

A spokeswoman for Corrections Minister Ted Quinlan said speculation that the prison and remand centre would be built at Majura were wrong. All short-listed sites were still up for consideration.

It comes down to the size of the land, security, proximity to services and other factors, which is a long process.

You have consistently ruled out a prison or permanent remand centre at Symonston, and yesterday in the Assembly you ruled out Kinlyside as a site. Can you advise the Assembly whether the shortlist you are using is the list of short-listed sites developed by the Standing Committee on Justice and Community Safety in its 1999 report? Or is it the

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