Ms KATRINA HODGKINSON (Burrinjuck) [1.17 p.m.]: Today I highlight the problems of public housing in the electorate of Burrinjuck, with specific mention of an incident that occurred in Young recently. First, I must say that Department of Housing staff serving the electorate of Burrinjuck are, by and large, excellent and dedicated workers, but they are hamstrung by the lack of support they receive from the State Labor Government. My office frequently receives calls from housing department tenants seeking repairs or refurbishment of their properties, who have had to wait sometimes years for work that I would call either urgent or major.

A case in point occurred in Young on 9 June when an 84-year-old tenant in the flats on Stoneridge Street found that she could not turn off her hot water tap. She enlisted the help of a friendly neighbour and they contacted the Department of Housing maintenance line, as is the required protocol. With the hot water overflowing the drip reservoir and flooding onto the bedroom floor, they received a recorded message, "Owing to a larger number of calls than usual we are unable to attend to you; please ring again later." The phone then went dead. The weather in Young at the time was overcast and raining, with a maximum temperature of 8.2 degrees Celsius. The overnight minimum was 3.2 degrees Celsius. That is not the sort of weather to be without hot water and to have a soggy, flooded bedroom! Both these elderly ladies have informed me that hearing this message is a common occurrence and that it is very frustrating to have to make multiple calls just to be able to speak to a real person, not a computer.

When my constituent finally managed to get through to the maintenance line, she was informed to turn the water off as the water heater could blow up. This elderly lady then had to explain that there were no individual stopcocks to some of the units, including this one, and the main supply tap was under a heavy iron grate about half a metre down in a trench—obviously the task was beyond the capabilities of my frail constituent. It was not until 3.00 p.m. that a Department of Housing officer arrived to inspect the problem, at which time he said the matter could not be attended to until the next day at the earliest. Staff at my office were contacted, who then spoke to the Department of Housing office in Queanbeyan. Subsequently, a maintenance contractor arrived the next morning and fixed the problem. The bottom line is that it took the Department of Housing more than 24 hours to fix this urgent problem. I have spoken to Department of Housing staff in the area and was informed that under the protocols in force at the moment the matter was attended to as quickly as the bureaucracy allowed.

If staff on the maintenance line were trained and allowed to make an over-the-phone assessment of the urgency of a situation, they could then contact a maintenance contractor and this type of situation could be resolved in a few hours. The only thing preventing resolution is the bureaucratic red tape the Premier states he is so opposed to, but to which his Minister for Housing appears to be wedded. It has been said frequently that actions speak louder than words, and in this case the Labor Government has again failed to live up to its spin. This is not, however, an isolated incident. Some Yass Department of Housing tenants were asked to spend last winter without ceiling insulation. The lowest temperature reached 5 degrees Celsius, while last summer the maximum temperature reached 41.8 degrees Celsius. Another elderly lady who resides in a Department of Housing flat in Young told me that it took her from December 2008 to May 2009 with multiple visits from contractors to have a dripping tap fixed. She wrote to me as follows:

After many calls and being told someone will be with you in the next 48 hours a contractor would send two men, not plumbers, who repeatedly replaced everything and left. Within 20 minutes the tap would start dripping and off I would go again. Finally a person from Housing arrived complete with clipboard to inquire about the tap and other jobs, which the company were supposed to have fixed.

I showed him the tap, still dripping, he noted on the clipboard and I pointed to all my call outs underlined in red. He said he would look at it.

Nothing was done so I rang Goulburn maintenance yet again.

Her letter continued, but I am sure that members get her drift. She further wrote:

There are 19 residents here, including one married couple. Several are very old and I feel someone has to speak up about the total lack of availability of local help for emergencies.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case. Very few tenants do not behave well and it is unfortunate that they tend to colour the general perception we have of public housing tenants. The majority are good people, many of whom are seniors, who live up to the expectations of their lease and have a right to expect that the Minister for Housing will ensure that his department lives up to its responsibilities. In the brief time I have remaining, I seek the indulgence of the House to mention the passing today of two icons, Farrah Fawcett Major and Michael Jackson. However, another icon leaves this Parliament. Of course, I speak of the Parliament's Financial Controller, Greg McGill. Tributes have been paid today to Mr McGill and I pass on my thanks to Greg for all the wonderful assistance he has provided to me in his capacity as Financial Controller. I thank him for the advice and his open-door attitude. I wish him very well and much happiness in his retirement next month.