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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 07 Hansard (Tuesday, 29 June 2004) . . Page.. 2973 ..

would save money that could be used elsewhere. That is another major problem in terms of expenditure in housing. Without cutting back on service or delivery and quality of service, we could make some proper savings.

What we seem to hear in every portfolio area is the government saying that there are no problems. Is it because government members sit on their hands, seemingly incapable of making the hard decisions? What do we then get? We get large amounts of money thrown at it and the government saying, “This is what we’re doing; we’re looking to the future.”

Try telling that to people who have been on the housing list for two years. They are coming to that point of saying, “Look, enough’s enough.” We do not want people to be pushed ahead of others. But we hear talk of a lot of money coming forward into housing. We are not seeing the efforts of that money. Again, we are spending more and getting less. Yes, it is a mantra, and I have no doubt that the Treasurer will say it is yet another. What else are we supposed to say? They are the facts, the reality.

It is interesting that two planks of public housing policy released by the Liberal opposition have simply been dismissed by the government. Mr Wood is saying, “We’re doing all of that. What’s Mrs Burke talking about?” Strange, is it not? That policy came about because I made it my business to talk to people about the problems that they face.

The crime prevention through environmental design is a tried and tested national and international project to deal with crime prevention within public housing complexes. Of course, we are talking about the minority of people. But again, I do not see any mention of that anywhere here. No money is to be spent on the upgrading of security for our public housing tenants in multihousing complexes.

While we move people out of these complexes they are very vulnerable. They are more vulnerable because fewer lights are on and the places are darker. This leaves places open to an element that just wants to run riot. It seems that the police, because they do not have some backing or resources, are unable to deal with the problem. People out there are hurting. We need action.

The money is good, but I do not know what it will be spent on; I do not have the detail. Not all the money that Mr Smyth has talked about has been expended. I do not know where that is up to. I have asked, but I do not have a response that says, “This is where this money is going; that’s where that money’s going.” I do not think the government knows. It seems to stab a pen at a paper and say, “That’ll do. We’ll have $14 million there. We’ll have $30 million over there.”

I am sorry if it makes the Treasurer feel uncomfortable; that is too bad. Perhaps the Treasurer can tell us about the money that he asked for and that he needed so desperately but which we have not yet spent. He probably has answers for that, and he is itching to get to his feet to tell us about it.

Despite throwing money at ACT Housing, we still have problems. What does that say? Mr Wood needs to sit down and talk with me. I have made this offer. I always stand up in this place and say, “Let’s talk about the issues.” He is obviously not going out and

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