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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 10 Hansard (Wednesday, 25 August 2004) . . Page.. 4163 ..

are not being listened to. All these people have had enough. They are saying that something has to change. There are serious issues that I know the minister is aware of, yet he seems to be unable or unwilling to do something about them. He may be in denial over it, but the culture at the upper to middle management level needs to be urgently addressed by this minister. The minister, Mr Wood, is retiring, and I do wish him well, but that is no excuse for dropping the bundle on people who are relying on his leadership.

The tendering process for some of the public housing complexes is nothing short of disastrous. Two and half years on we are still waiting on a good outcome for tenants at Fraser Court. With 40 per cent occupancy, there are massive problems there. We are still no further forward with that. I am most concerned about the future of that complex. I will leave that point there. I think Mr Wood knows what I am talking about.

Mr Wood: You were going to knock it down.

MRS BURKE: No, we were not, Mr Wood. You are not coming clean about the future of Fraser Court. I will leave that one for another day. We have had the same process with the refurbishment of Northbourne Flats, which, I would argue, has been even worse than the situation with Fraser Court. With both projects, tenants who have been moved out to other housing properties are feeling guilty because they are taking up two properties instead of one.

The former Burnie Court site has been lying idle for how long? I congratulate the minister and the government on finally bringing about a very speedy development of aged persons’ units. I acknowledge that. Mr Cornwell probably will talk about the situation concerning housing the elderly. There are 131 people waiting for older persons’ accommodation and the average waiting time is 830 days; that is, elderly people have been waiting over two years to be housed in appropriate accommodation. That is totally unacceptable.

The housing debt has now escalated to $2 million. These people are our most vulnerable citizens. Mr Wood does a lot of talking about the establishment of the debt review committee, which is great. We have had lots of talk at the monthly meetings, but we have seen little action. I know that this sector is getting agitated and wants something to be done to address the escalating debt within ACT Housing. I think that the government’s debt policy is a failure, with figures showing a 17.38 per cent increase in the last year alone. I think that the minister, yet again, has failed the community.

There are many other things that I could talk about. Let’s look at the housing waiting list. It was said in this place this afternoon that the former Liberal government axed 700 houses from the housing stock. I have never once denied that. I have never once said anything about this government and housing stock being removed, per se. In fact, my colleagues and I supported what happened with Currong apartments; it was not practical to do otherwise. I am not happy about the fact that there are 3,745 applications from 7,822 people on the housing waiting list.

The reason for that—I was not told this by some liar; I was told it by a person within ACT Housing who is so concerned because this person and others are under so much pressure—is that there are so many properties lying empty for one reason or another, that

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