Page 852 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 20 April 2021
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MR GENTLEMAN: I thank Ms Lawder for the question. I will say that over 70 per cent of Canberrans live in detached housing, and that is their choice. What this government wants to do is provide choice for all Canberrans. There will be Canberrans that would like to like in denser situations. We have seen that with the influx of people into lively areas like Braddon and the Northbourne corridor. So it is important that we as government are able to provide both styles of living for them and, of course, the in between—the missing middle, which we see as townhouse accommodation.
This has been well surveyed across the Canberra community through the minister’s statement of planning intent workshops and those other surveys that have occurred. This is why we strategically moved to the planning strategy that we have of 70 per cent infill and 30 per cent greenfield sites. We have quite a deal—70 per cent—of detached housing at the moment and Canberrans have said to us they would like to live in different ways. We are providing that accommodation opportunity for them.
MS LAWDER: Minister, what exactly is the so-called demonstration housing project demonstrating, given we already have RZ2 zoning available?
MR GENTLEMAN: It is demonstrating a variety of opportunities and housing options for people into the future. We are looking at ways of being inventive for people so that they can live in the way they want to live into the future in Canberra. Of distinct interest, we saw a group of younger people in the statement of intent planning workshop—we had over 100 on a Friday night—who told us how they would like to live in the future in the ACT; not about the product that they would like to live in but how they would like to live generally, how they would like to live closer to their friends, closer to public transport, closer to amenity like Braddon, nightclubs and restaurants. It is those interests I think and those surveys that we have fed into the planning strategy.
MR CAIN: Minister, is this project simply a way to change the Territory Plan by stealth by quietly converting RZ1 to RZ2?
MR GENTLEMAN: No, it is a reflection on what Canberrans have asked us to have a look at. And that is what we are doing. We have seen changes in the territory from when I was born here, and the suburbs barely extended past the mountain tops that we see around Lake Burley Griffin where every block was somewhere near a thousand square metres to the changes we see now in the modern Canberra where we sometimes have smaller blocks and in the more suburban areas the larger blocks. People can have a choice on how they would like to live into the future.
Government—climate change strategy
MS ORR: My question is to the Chief Minister. Chief Minister, what is the government doing to ensure that the ACT continues to lead the nation on climate action policy?
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