Page 702 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 31 March 2021
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MR GENTLEMAN: I thank Ms Clay for the question. It is a very important strategy that the government announced a number of years ago now to ensure that we can stop urban sprawl—
Mr Parton: They love it at Googong.
MR GENTLEMAN: and provide an economical way forward for housing in the ACT, looking at the strains on planning into the future. We have a limited border. As Mr Parton says, the people of Googong would love to come and live in the ACT but choose not to.
As Ms Clay said, the strategy worked off a previous planning strategy and, before that, the statement of planning intent by me, as minister. We went through quite a number of workshops to gauge how the people of Canberra wanted to see Canberra grow. All the people in those workshops wanted to see more densification along transport corridors and around town centres. As to how we measure it, I am very pleased to say that we are on track—
Ms Clay: On a point of order, I was actually asking about how we are measuring our land releases and developments against the strategy, not how we developed the strategy.
MADAM SPEAKER: I think the minister was talking in broad terms on that policy. You have 40 seconds left, Minister, and you may be able to get to that.
MR GENTLEMAN: Thank you, Madam Speaker. Yes, I am very pleased to announce that already, in 2019, 76 per cent of new dwellings were in the denser areas. That means we exceeded our target in the very first year of implementation. I am very pleased to see that. But this is ongoing and includes not just the SLA’s releases but the private sector as well. It is a very important move forward and one that we have to keep track of.
MS CLAY: Are new developments that are built on rural leases and the Molonglo western edge investigation area counted as infill development under that 70 per cent target?
MR GENTLEMAN: No, that would be greenfields. What we are looking at for urban infill is within the current brownfields environment, as I have mentioned, particularly with densification around town centres and transport corridors. It has been successful. It has given the Canberra community quite a bit of choice about how they would like to live in the ACT, whether they want to live in a denser area, close to family and friends on transport corridors, or whether they would like to live on bigger blocks of land—for example, where I live in Calwell or where Mr Parton lives in Theodore.
MR PARTON: Minister, when is the government intending to release residential land, as mentioned by Ms Clay, in those areas west of Molonglo?
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