Page 1327 - Week 05 - Thursday, 18 June 2020
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MS LE COUTEUR: Minister, will the Territory Plan variation for living infrastructure which was under consultation earlier this year also count artificial grass as green space?
MR GENTLEMAN: It does, depending on what it is used for. I can advise, of course, that living infrastructure can be artificial grass. In particular, it is used for areas where you may have people with a disability wanting to use that area and real grass is an impediment to those people wanting to proceed, in some cases. There is the opportunity there.
Housing—community
MR PARTON: My question is to the Minister for Housing and Suburban Development. Minister, the Canberra Times recently reported that more than 30 brand-new dwellings in Kaleen earmarked for community housing remained vacant 15 months after completion in March last year. It was also reported that a tenderer to manage these had been selected about five months ago. Minister, are you able to tell me how many people have remained on the waiting list for five months since the tenderer was selected?
MS BERRY: I thank Mr Parton for the question and for his interest in increasing and improving public housing across the ACT, despite the petition that was delivered by the opposition in the Assembly this morning to reduce the number of dwellings in Chisholm. I am disappointed that that contract did not come forward immediately. However, we have been operating in unprecedented circumstances and Housing ACT have gone above and beyond to make sure that they can support people in our community who are homeless, who are experiencing homelessness or who are sleeping rough.
I know that members of the opposition have taken the chance to visit some of the sites that have been provided and opened up—fast-tracked—to provide support, particularly for rough sleepers but also for women and children in our community. I can inform the Assembly that at MacKillop House, a fast-tracked project with CatholicCare, after a year of negotiations between CatholicCare and the nuns who lived there, there are, a week and a bit after opening, five families and eight single women being accommodated. At Axial housing there are now 21 people who had been previously sleeping rough.
MADAM SPEAKER: A point of order, Ms Lawder?
Ms Lawder: The question was: how many people have remained on the waiting list for five months since the tenderer was selected?
MADAM SPEAKER: I am not going to rule on the point of order because Ms Berry is providing information about the accommodation that has been provided. It goes to the point of the question, perhaps.
Ms Lawder: We are looking for a number—how many?
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