❓ Hon Giz Watson questions the Minister for Housing and Works regarding the maintenance of telephone connections in Homeswest properties and the Department's response to related complaints and breach notices. The Minister's response indicates that telephone lines are the tenant's responsibility and the Department focuses on broader property maintenance.
AnsweredQoN 6416Legislative Council
QuestionView source ↗
(1) How many Homeswest properties do not have a working telephone connection?
(2) How many complaints about faulty phone lines did Homeswest receive in the past and current financial year?
(3) How many breach notices did Homeswest receive referring to the failure of maintenance in the current financial year?
(4) Is the Minister satisfied that public housing tenants are without telephone due to faults in the house internal telephone connection that are not attended to by the Department?
(5) Will the Minister direct the Department to provide the necessary maintenance to all Homewest properties without delay?
(6) If no to (5), why not?
(2) How many complaints about faulty phone lines did Homeswest receive in the past and current financial year?
(3) How many breach notices did Homeswest receive referring to the failure of maintenance in the current financial year?
(4) Is the Minister satisfied that public housing tenants are without telephone due to faults in the house internal telephone connection that are not attended to by the Department?
(5) Will the Minister direct the Department to provide the necessary maintenance to all Homewest properties without delay?
(6) If no to (5), why not?
AnswerView source ↗
Answered
18 June 2008
Responded by
Minister for Local Government representing the Minister for Housing and Works
Response time
20 days
The Department of Housing and Works advises
1-2) As telephone lines are not standard fixtures, the Department does not keep records of telephone connections and services to its dwellings or maintain this equipment.
3) The Department does not collate this type of data across its 35,340 public housing dwellings. Each tenancy is managed and monitored.
The Department's contracting arrangements require contractors to complete works within the agreed contract timeframes of 3 hours for maintenance where the tenant's health or safety is at risk, 48 hours for urgent maintenance of a non health and safety nature and 10 days for non urgent maintenance. The Department issues in excess of 250,000 job orders to contractors each year. Regular monitoring and reporting indicates that consistently across all categories 90% of maintenance work is completed within the expected timeframes. The remaining work is completed shortly after.
4) The maintenance of telephone lines is the responsibility of the tenant and/or the telecommunications company.
5-6) The Department aims to undertake maintenance as and when required to ensure the property remains safe and secure. Since 2001, the State Government has invested significant additional funds to maintain its public housing asset; in 2000/01 maintenance expenditure was $33, 479, 216 and the budget allocation for 2007/08 is $73, 346, 895.
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1-2) As telephone lines are not standard fixtures, the Department does not keep records of telephone connections and services to its dwellings or maintain this equipment.
3) The Department does not collate this type of data across its 35,340 public housing dwellings. Each tenancy is managed and monitored.
The Department's contracting arrangements require contractors to complete works within the agreed contract timeframes of 3 hours for maintenance where the tenant's health or safety is at risk, 48 hours for urgent maintenance of a non health and safety nature and 10 days for non urgent maintenance. The Department issues in excess of 250,000 job orders to contractors each year. Regular monitoring and reporting indicates that consistently across all categories 90% of maintenance work is completed within the expected timeframes. The remaining work is completed shortly after.
4) The maintenance of telephone lines is the responsibility of the tenant and/or the telecommunications company.
5-6) The Department aims to undertake maintenance as and when required to ensure the property remains safe and secure. Since 2001, the State Government has invested significant additional funds to maintain its public housing asset; in 2000/01 maintenance expenditure was $33, 479, 216 and the budget allocation for 2007/08 is $73, 346, 895.
Notice: This document is created or edited using unregistered or evaluation copy of rtLib valid for testing or development purposes only. To use it for productive or any other purposes please register it. You may purchase the license on
http://www.rtlib.com
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