Page 950 - Week 03 - Thursday, 7 April 2022
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Clearly, some people, including families, want to live in apartments and enjoy doing so. I honour that choice. I likewise support those Canberrans who want desperately to live in a townhouse or a detached house instead. As academic research conclusively shows, this desire is not irrational, nor is it selfish, as those opposite always insist whenever anyone tries to make a choice for their family that does not align with the radical Greens agenda.
The ACT Greens, it must be remembered, spent years advocating for better living conditions for chickens but fully support a land release policy that is forcing Canberra families to live cramped in high-rise battery cages. And ACT Labor are so desperate for power it seems that they are willing to be held hostage by their radical coalition partners.
Rejecting this motion will also make it clear that neither Labor nor the Greens care if choking land supply causes Canberra house prices to rise. In fact, despite empty slogans like “A home for all”, according to Productivity Commission data, these same two parties have overseen a nearly three per cent decline in the number of public housing dwellings over the past four years. It is a very real possibility that they are quite happy to see house prices in Canberra keep going up at a rate higher than the national average. I am certain that my Labor and Greens colleagues can comprehend their own budget review and therefore they know what it states. (Time expired.)
MS CLAY (Ginninderra) (4.00): I rise to speak in support of the amendment to the motion. I am glad we are having this debate today; it is a really important topic. It is an important issue in our bush capital as we look at how we will develop in future and as we reflect on the desires that we have heard from Canberrans in a lot of the past surveys and studies.
We have discussed here on many occasions that we are experiencing a housing affordability crisis. This is a serious issue, and it is not just being experienced here in the ACT. This is being felt right across Australia. In order to ensure that everyone has a home, we need to deal with this issue in a variety of ways. One of the considerations that we must take into account when dealing with the future of housing is the remaining land that we have in the ACT, what we need it for and what we plan to do with it. We cannot make quick, simple decisions about this.
I am keen to talk a little about the outcomes of the Housing Choices Collaboration Hub in 2018. For those who are not familiar with it, in 2018, 31 randomly selected members of the community were engaged in a deliberative process called the Housing Choices Collaboration Hub. Thirteen recommendations were developed across nine themes. Those themes included affordability; character; environment; lifestyle and diversity; planning and approvals; public housing; quality of construction; quality of design; and zoning.
The recommendations out of this Collaboration Hub are really interesting; there are a lot of sensible suggestions there. People wanted to ensure that a proportion of new land release is set aside for lower income earners and that we maintain that proportion. They wanted us to explore and implement alternative models for affordable home
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