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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 1 Hansard (20 February) . . Page.. 330 ..

MR WOOD (continuing):

Ask the question. I think most of us realise there are many times when we take on information and then ask for some details before assuming that that information is correct. I was disappointed with Ms Tucker's 15 minutes. I am the minister, and I probably do not know exactly what happens on the ground sometimes. However, I pay careful attention to what ACT Housing does-and I have to say I am convinced. Time after time, I hear stories of how caring and patient they can be with tenants.

I went to a tenant of the month award three or four months ago. I know that tenant would have been very difficult. She was effusive in her thanks. She said, "Look, you have kept me on line."Sometimes there is a bit of firmness in what is said to the tenant. She was effusive in her thanks and knew that she was in a good circumstance because of the extra care of ACT Housing staff. I see that over and over again. Of course, I get gripes-I do and you do. Housing is firm when it needs to be. It goes through a long process in respect of debts. It certainly does that, as it should. I encourage them to see that tenants are kept up to the mark in respect of their payments.

One of the very early things I did when I became minister was to put into the hands of every member the comprehensive detail that is gone through as processes to recover debts begin and to see that tenants pay their rent. It is very complex. It was a big A3 spreadsheet, and it took a bit of reading. I sent that to everyone because I wanted people to know what was done.

ACT Housing people do not enjoy taking people to the tribunal or anything else. That is not a very happy job, but what is the alternative? There was once a minister in this territory, who I still respect, who said that no housing tenant would be evicted because of unpaid rent. So rental arrears shot up to about $6 million and are currently about $600,000.

That is not something I focus heavily upon, because it is not the only thing that drives us in respect of our tenants. However, we do need to gently encourage people to pay up. I know that, when someone has trouble paying their rent, they probably have trouble paying electricity, telephone, car registration and all sorts of other items-and we do take that into account.

What are we doing? We provide assistance to the counselling service-CARE-that Ms Tucker mentioned. Since this is one of the biggest problems we have, which can end someone's tenancy, we are doing more than that.

ACT Housing met earlier this week with people from Welfare Rights, Shelter, Essential Services and CARE, to explore other avenues of assisting tenants with debts. We are doing this as part of our commitment to sustainable tenancy, because we don't want to evict people.

I heard heavily yesterday, in speeches in this place, that there are virtuous people here. Some of us-if you happen to be a minister-seem to lose all virtue and all decency or something. We do our very best, and we are no different from anybody else in this chamber. We all care.

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