Public Housing

The Hon. J.E. HANSON (15:17): Supplementary based on the answer: is the 100 homes proclaiming to be built or in the process of being built or getting done part of the 14 per cent of funds that was spent to 30 June, and are they the homes that you have previously mentioned in this place will be sold as affordable homes once they are completed?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (15:17): They will be, as far as affordable homes. I am not quite sure where the government got the 14 per cent figure—

The Hon. J.E. Hanson: From your chief financial officer.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: Well, I think they have extrapolated what was said and done their own back-of-envelope calculations—

The Hon. K.J. Maher: Well, what's the answer then? If that's wrong, you must know what it is. Give us the answer.

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: But the reality is, as I have said, that—

The Hon. K.J. Maher: Go on.

The PRESIDENT: Order! The minister has the call and—

The Hon. K.J. Maher: To claim something's incorrect, she must know what the correct figure is, so let's hear it.

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: In terms of the stimulus program, those works have largely been completed, and that is the point, because the tenants have the benefit of it—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: Well, the honourable member—

The PRESIDENT: Order! Members on my left will not allow the minister to answer a supplementary that has been asked by one of their colleagues. The minister has the call, and I would very much like to get to the next question.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: In terms of the timing of payments and so forth, those things are matters that the contractors will seek their invoices from the Housing Authority. Some of that timing we don't have any control over, but they know that they will be paid and that they will be paid quickly, which is a commitment that we have made as a government across government—that anybody who invoices the government should be paid within a short period of time.