Under questioning from the Shadow Minister for Housing Mark Parton in Annual Reports Hearings, Housing ACT have been unable to detail how many public housing dwellings are non-compliant with the Labor-Greens government’s own new residential tenancy standards and how much upgrading the homes will cost.

The Housing Minister also questioned the ability of industry to cope with the level of work that will be required to roll out this policy.

“There are over 11,000 properties in the Housing ACT portfolio -the assessment alone will take years to determine non-compliance and cost millions of dollars let alone the cost of installing insulation in potentially millions of homes,” Mr Parton said.

“At $5000 an installation for an average house just for the roof and using the 4000 older homes quoted by Housing ACT in the hearings is a cost of at least $20 million.

“The prospect of the government not being able to comply with its own legislation is quite comical. The tenancy legislation, though no doubt well intended, is disruptive and dangerous and puts the entire ACT rental market at risk," Mr Parton concluded.

Minister Berry also refused to confirm that the level of public housing has fallen over the last 10 years despite the ACT population growing by 25 per cent in this time.