Page 4260 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 16 November 2005
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bed-sit units from the stock that were simply unusable. That was a position that was agreed in this place. They keep throwing furphies like that into the mix.
The point is that we are now four years into this government. When, oh when, are the Stanhope government and this current minister, Mr Hargreaves, going to stop blaming former Liberal ministers and the former Liberal government? Come on; get with the program. It is your job, your responsibility; you should be moving this agenda forward.
Today, what have you done? You have set it again in concrete. You have got your feet down on the floor, with no room to move, and all you can do is put out the rhetoric, put out the diatribe, about what you have done. In fact, there was nothing to support what you have done—nothing at all. There were no real, solid, concrete facts there.
Why don’t we talk now about the housing waiting lists in relation to the turnover of stock? Mr Hargreaves should take note of his own words. He is quite concerned, in fact, about the length of time it is taking to turn over stock. He is disappointed, I note. I agree with his disappointment. The 28 days or more is too long. To have people in our community sleeping in cars, sleeping with friends, sleeping wherever—and Mr Hargreaves likes to use these figures when it suits him—is not acceptable. There are some 1,200 people who are classed as homeless or without proper shelter at any one time. He uses that when it suits him. These people are simply unable to make any headway in the public housing sector in terms of getting proper, suitable accommodation. It is one thing being provided appropriate accommodation, but is it suitable?
We are also verging on the problem where people are now starting to take matters into their own hands. They ring my office, saying; “I am going to break into this property if I can’t get some satisfaction.”
I particularly commend the work of the departmental liaison officers that are working, and have worked since my involvement in housing, in Mr Hargreaves’s office. He should feel really blessed that he has people like that that support and help him. Quite frankly, without them, where would he be? It is a shame that he is not supporting those people in some of his own decision-making. We have seen more delay and more delay. As I said, after four years we seem to have sunk a lot of money into public housing but yet we do not seem to have much of an outcome. That is the problem. Lots of money is being sunk, but we want to see the net gain.
Mr Gentleman yelled across the chamber that 69 people have been housed. Is that a net gain?
Mr Gentleman: Seventy-nine.
MRS BURKE: Compared to what, Mr Gentlemen?
Mr Gentleman: Fifty-nine from the year before.
MRS BURKE: Compared to what, though? Is this a net gain? I do not think you know. You are now the housing minister, are you? I see that Mr Hargreaves now has another new housing minister, along with the—
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