House of Assembly Tuesday 22 May 2018
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Tuesday 22 May 2018 The Speaker, Ms Hickey, took the Chair at 10 a.m. and read Prayers. QUESTIONS Housing - Tenancy of Public Housing Properties Ms WHITE question to MINISTER for HOUSING, Mr JAENSCH [10.03 a.m.] On 13 April, you staged a photo opportunity at Warrane. You claimed to be handing over the keys to two new public housing properties, which were then left empty. In your first week of this parliament, almost three weeks ago, you said your advice was that tenants would move in by the end of that week of 4 May. You told this House - Housing Tasmania has advised me that the two new units in Warrane have been offered to tenants … One tenant is a priority applicant and is expected to move in by the end of the week. Did that tenant occupy this property at that time or did you mislead the parliament? ANSWER Madam Speaker, our Government is getting on with the job of putting more roofs over the heads of Tasmanians who need them. You have had a couple of weeks to come up with some good questions about what we are doing to solve Tasmania's housing shortage issue and provide houses for Tasmanians who need them. The best Labor can come up with is this issue they have been running with, that somehow there is some discrepancy between when houses are built, when they become available and who is going to move into them. The units I believe the Leader of the Opposition is referring to have been tenanted. I am told the so-called delays in tenants being active enough in their homes, to satisfy Labor, relate to their personal circumstances. Labor is bringing attention to the circumstances of Tasmanian citizens, vulnerable people, who are being assisted into housing. They need to do their homework and ensure they have their stories straight. In some cases they are trying to catch a minister out on whether he gave a time frame for people moving into those houses. It looks as if they are staking out homes of vulnerable Tasmanians who are being placed in houses off the social housing register and keeping a diary of their movements in and out of those houses and the time it takes for them to set up house. An offer is made to a potential tenant when a property enters the housing system. These potential tenants will view the house and decide if they wish to accept it. An offer is made to another applicant if it is not accepted. Once it is accepted, the normal lease signing process is followed and the applicant makes their own arrangements to move in, which means that a house can be tenanted, allocated to a tenant, and there is a period while that tenant moves in, leaves their other property and actively takes up their tenancy. 1 22 May 2018 I ask Labor to please stop sending your vans out to these addresses after we do a media release, stop spying on people in their homes to work out when they take up their active lease. Please respect their privacy and stop throwing them around in here as if it was an important question. Ms WHITE - Point of order, Madam Speaker. I take personal offence at the claims made by the minister that Labor members of parliament are spying on people in their homes. I ask him to withdraw. Madam SPEAKER - I did find it a rather unusual accusation. Mr Jaensch, would you like to withdraw that comment of stalking, please? Mr JAENSCH - Madam Speaker, I am happy to withdraw if I have offended the member. What I want to draw attention to is the practice. When people have been allocated a property they deserve to have their privacy respected. Housing - Tenancy of Public Housing Properties Ms WHITE question to MINISTER for HOUSING, Mr JAENSCH [10.06 a.m.] I remind you that you staged a photo opportunity handing over the keys to properties five weeks ago. How long have each of those properties at Warrane been occupied? ANSWER Madam Speaker, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for watching the media and seeing that we are putting out good stories every week about the new properties we are releasing into the market for Tasmanians who need them. When a government commits $200 million of Tasmanian taxpayer's money to the development of portable housing for Tasmanians we have an obligation to show Tasmanians, in general, and those people who are waiting to be placed in suitable accommodation, that we are putting properties on the ground, we are taking action, and we have a plan to ensure every Tasmanian who needs one gets a roof over their head. I did speak with the media at some houses in Warrane, Punchbowl and in Cooee, and around the state where we are rolling out our Affordable Housing Action Plan properties; 2500 of them over the eight years we have funded our housing strategy so far. I handed the keys to Housing Tasmania. They then go through the process to match that house with a tenant, which I outlined; someone who needs an affordable, appropriate, suitably set up house to live in. Housing Tasmania commences a process of tenanting that property. Once a person has accepted a tenancy, it is up to them when they move in. Ms WHITE - Point of order, Madam Speaker. Standing Order 45 goes to relevance. The minister was asked a specific question: how long have each of those properties at Warrane been occupied? I ask you to draw the minister's attention to the question. Madam SPEAKER - The minister has finished his answer, I am sorry. I believe he had a very good attempt to try to answer it. 2 22 May 2018 Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse - National Redress Scheme Ms O'CONNOR question to PREMIER, Mr HODGMAN [10.09 a.m.] Recommendation 88 of the final report of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was that, 'State and territory governments should implement these recommendations to remove limitation periods as soon as possible'. The Limitation Amendment Act 2017 has yet to be proclaimed, prolonging the trauma of survivors of child sexual abuse. ABC News last night told the wrenching story of Tasmania abuse survivor, Pamela, who is begging your Government to sign up to the National Redress Scheme. At the same time you are failing to proclaim this legislation and failing to commit to redress, your Government has re-tabled the Sentencing Amendment (Mandatory Sentencing for Serious Sexual Offences Against Children) Bill 2018, which is identical to the bill that was blocked by the upper House last year. Will you stop pursuing your flawed populist agenda and instead focus on implementing the recommendations of the royal commission and experts on matters of child sexual abuse? On behalf of survivors, we ask when will your Government proclaim the Limitations Amendment Act of 2017? ANSWER Madam Speaker, I thank the member for the question, which conflated a number of issues into one and again, typically and sadly, has diminished an important national reform that goes to supporting victims of abuse which this Government has said from a very early stage we would be looking to involve our state in, noting that Tasmania was one state that took the initiative some years ago to provide an ex gratia scheme of support for the victims of abuse who were placed into the care of this state. That, along with how it could best be determined that any survivor of abuse could be effectively captured in a national redress scheme, was a matter that required careful attention by this Government. It was also a matter raised by the Leader of the Greens, who expressed some reservations about the structure of the national redress scheme and urged caution with respect to signing up to it. Ms O'CONNOR - Point of order, Madam Speaker. I feel that the Premier has misrepresented me. Mr HODGMAN - I am not talking about you, I am talking about your national leader, who was understandably expressing not reservations, but wanting to be assured that the national scheme would effectively capture those people it is intended to support. In relation to the Limitations Act, as we have always said, proclamation of that legislation would coincide with any commencement of a redress scheme to ensure that survivors were offered a choice of recourse. It is much more complicated and complex than the member is suggesting. The Attorney-General, who later today will be outlining our response to this matter and indeed the national redress scheme, will touch on a number of these. 3 22 May 2018 With respect to mandatory sentencing, we will not resile from our commitment to ensure that people who commit horrendous crimes against young children will be subject to jail. We will not resile from our commitment to ensure that those in our community who work to protect us get the protection of laws. I note, in passing and as a matter of interest, that the Victorian Labor government is also looking to move into this space as well and show that at least the Labor Party in Victoria puts victims first, as opposed to the Labor-Greens position here which seeks to give offenders a 'get out of jail free' card. Government Plan for Tasmania Mr SHELTON question to PREMIER, Mr HODGMAN [10.13 a.m.] Tasmanians have again strongly endorsed the Government's plan for Tasmania, most recently at the Prosser election.