Page 947 - Week 03 - Thursday, 7 April 2022
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numbers, and do not conflate the issue of number of residential dwellings in order to say, “We’re doing the job,” because you are disguising the very low proportion of land for detached housing. There is an extraordinarily high percentage of land for high-density housing.
The Labor-Greens government has had over 20 years to get this right. Canberra has been growing for that whole time. We have been approaching borders, and have indeed approached borders, for over 20 years of planning. Here is where we are at—with a housing affordability crisis. We need, very simply, more variety of housing choice—duplexes, apartment buildings, standalone dwellings—and in the urban centres, to recognise the attractiveness and the family-centred, leafy green suburbs. We need to look at a wider choice of what is being made available to the community.
Ms Lee has introduced a motion outlining simple and effective solutions to provide more choice for Canberrans, who are currently being stratified according to what they can afford. As the most successful Labor Chief Minister that the territory has ever had would know, we are creating a society of haves and have-nots in terms of housing affordability.
Minister Gentleman talked about this being an international problem. Hang on; you have a responsibility, Minister, for what you are able to do in the ACT. You should not be looking for excuses anywhere you can find them. Focus on what you control in the ACT, which is the release of land, and the type of development that land is available for.
Minister, you talked about urban sprawl, and I am really confused about what that means when I hear you say it. If someone was coming in to the territory and deciding whether there was urban sprawl, they might think that there is because we have hit the borders in New South Wales to the north and we have bought land in New South Wales to the west, with an intention to expand the border. Some people would say that is urban sprawl.
Again, Minister, you use terms in order to criticise us—without any evidence, by the way—yet, the same terms could very easily apply to you. I do not know whether you actually recognise what the words mean in the context of the reality that we are in. We have seen that, sadly, this week, Minister, in your capacity as minister with responsibility for industrial relations and workplace affairs, when you presented ministerial statements about workplace safety without even referencing a high school in a suburb in your electorate that is a disastrous failure and an unsafe place for school students. Are you in touch with reality, Minister? The words you say in this place do not reflect that. Shame on you for that. Get something right, surely.
Sadly, I cannot accept the minister’s amendment to the motion from the Leader of the Opposition. I am a bit puzzled, too, by Minister Vassarotti saying, “We just can’t have small homes on big blocks.” I wonder how many members opposite could be described as having a small home on a big block. How many, I wonder, would like to volunteer to return their standalone home on a generous parcel of land to the market—to provide more housing choice, of course, for their community?
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