Page 1314 - Week 04 - Thursday, 5 May 2022
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Mr Gentleman got up in this place and completely rewrote my motion and simply congratulated himself and his government mates on a job well done. Where is the responsibility in that? Where is the accountability? Where is the understanding and where is the empathy in that?
In the weeks since, I have also called on the Labor-Greens government to commission a new housing choices survey so that we can have fresh data to inform the future of land release development and planning for the ACT. What was their response this time? Radio silence.
Ministers in this Labor-Greens government have claimed in this place that the ACT government only controls two per cent of the housing market. That is a ludicrous claim. The ACT government owns and controls almost all of the land that can be developed in the ACT. It controls what it sells on to property developers. It controls what land is released on the Indicative Land Release Program and it controls what can be built on it. It controls whether it is an apartment building, a set of townhouses or detached housing.
The Canberra Liberals have made it very clear that we firmly believe in giving Canberrans choice when it comes to housing. Whether they want to live in an apartment or a studio, a townhouse or a freestanding home, that is a choice that Canberrans should have genuinely available to them. Government should not be making that choice for Canberrans, nor should it stand in the way, actively dictating that 70 per cent of Canberrans will live in a high-rise apartment tower whether they like it or not.
This Labor-Greens government cannot hide any longer. The Chief Minister, his cabinet, the Labor-Greens backbenchers cannot stay quiet any longer. It is all very easy for Labor-Greens members in this place to throw around words like “choice” and “a home for all”, but when it really comes down to it, actions speak louder than words and actions and decisions speak louder than slogans. What we have seen from this Labor-Greens government is hypocrisy. As always with the members opposite, it is a case of “do as I say, not as I do”. The vast majority of members of the Labor-Greens government, who live in detached houses or townhouses. They got one, but you are not entitled to one.
The Labor-Greens government backbenchers must make a choice between the same government that has spent the last 20 years restricting land supply and making ACT homes some of the most unaffordable in the country or agreeing that it is time to explore options for the future.
When I have been down talking to locals at Tuggeranong—and I will be there again tomorrow—the overwhelming feedback that I get is about the housing crisis, from young people who are dismayed at seeing their dream of owning their own home slip away under the Labor-Greens government, through to parents and grandparents who see the struggles their children and grandchildren have in trying desperately to access housing, those Canberrans who know that, under this Labor-Greens government, the opportunity to live in their own home is quickly becoming a reality that is only available to the wealthy. This is unacceptable.
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