Page 4532 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 18 October 2011
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MR SPEAKER: Minister, are you happy to table the document?
MS BURCH: I am—
Members interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Order! Members, I am just trying to facilitate this. Do you want to—
MS BURCH: I am happy to table it because what it shows is that there is not a history and litany—Mrs Dunne has verballed yet again the Community Services Directorate to say there are—
Members interjecting—
MS BURCH: a list of organisations that are about to cease services.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
MS BURCH: I table the following document:
Community Services Directorate—list of outstanding invoices.
Public housing—energy and water efficiency
MS BRESNAN: My question is to the Attorney-General and is in relation to modelling that has been undertaken by the government on the Greens’ rental standards bill that you referred to in the Canberra Times on 3 October. Minister, you were quoted in the Canberra Times as saying that it will cost the government more than $200 million over five years to upgrade the 12,000 public housing properties to a three-star energy efficiency standard by 2016. Minister, on what basis was that figure calculated given that ACT Housing does not have baseline data on the energy efficiency ratings of more than 85 per cent of the public housing stock?
MR CORBELL: That was based on advice provided by ACT Housing. Ms Bresnan would have to ask the question of my colleague Minister Burch in relation to the specifics of that. But what is very important to note, Mr Speaker, is that it is interesting that the Greens accuse the government of not having data, but they are quite happy to make assertions about how much their bill will or will not cost renters here in the ACT when it comes to upgrades for energy and water efficiency. They accuse the government of not having modelling. But, of course, the Greens provided no modelling whatsoever to justify their bill.
The fact is that this bill will have significant impacts. Even if you were to set aside public housing, this bill will have significant impacts on the private rental market. The rental market is already very tight, as members know—there is a one to two per cent vacancy rate in the private rental market.
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