Page 4259 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 16 November 2005
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The questions—and they still remain unanswered—are: how many extra premises have you, Mr Hargreaves? What have you done? When will we know what will happen with Currong? There was this intimation the other day that something is about to happen in Fraser Court.
Mr Hargreaves: I told you.
MR SMYTH: “I told you.” There is this intimation something is about to happen at Fraser Court. What is about to happen at Fraser Court? “We will know in December.” And that is the whole point. By December, they will have been in government for four years and two months, and nothing will have happened at Fraser Court—not a lick of paint. Nothing will have changed at Fraser Court because of this government’s ineptitude in budgetary management and this government’s ineptitude in delivering public housing for the public.
Mr Mulcahy: There are plenty of dramas over there.
MR SMYTH: There are plenty of dramas. The drama goes on. We have passed the amendment; the government did it with the weight of numbers. But I note, even though he took another 10 minutes, there is still no substance; there is still no evidence; there is still no proof; there is no documentation to prove any of his claims; there is no documentation to prove that they have done anything at all. If he had it, he would have used it. He would have tabled it or he would have quoted it. Maybe he could mime it or sign it or something—I do not know how—maybe smoke signals. No, no smoking here during sitting days. That is right; we do not want smoke through the roof.
We have got nothing from this minister in this debate, except for a whole lot of drivel. It is very, very important that the minister is held accountable for this. He must help, assist and encourage public housing tenants, wherever possible and appropriate, to move into the private rental market or home ownership. We believe that they must improve the management of its housing asset base, particularly in regard to the multiunit complex sites. They have been particularly neglected under this government and particularly neglected under this minister.
MRS BURKE (Molonglo) (5.47): That was an interesting debate, wasn’t it? Quite frankly, the minister’s response and the government’s response were disappointing. It shows me how little passion this current minister has in terms of the portfolio. The former minister, Mr Wood, showed a lot more enthusiasm and interest in this portfolio area.
I will start on the asset management strategy. It is really interesting to note that this asset management strategy was formulated from the 2001 former Liberal government strategy and has changed little, quite frankly. The government have never made and paraded a new one; so I can only assume that they are quite happy to go along with what was an agreed position before.
I should mention, on that note, that, as the minister well knows—in fact, Mr Gentleman would like to hear this one, too, and he might need to get his hands on the asset management strategy—there was an agreed position to remove a few hundred garden
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