Page 3329 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 19 October 2022
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(b) recent ballots for single blocks for detached housing have attracted thousands of applicants;
(c) Canberra has the highest median rents in Australia; and
(d) land release in the ACT is not meeting demand, and is contributing to Canberra’s housing affordability crisis; and
(2) calls on the ACT Government to:
(a) establish an inventory of serviced land;
(b) include in future Indicative Land Release Programs (ILRPs) a clearer set of classification for block types, and reporting requirements against delivery of those each financial year, such as the estimated dwelling yield and number of blocks for all housing types;
(c) publish for public scrutiny and analysis, its residential supply and demand model and methodology;
(d) publish for public scrutiny, the policy guidance and criteria for the identification and allocation of affordable housing in the ILRP;
(e) include in ACT Land and Property Reports the number of blocks not sold for the relevant reporting period, including the classification of block type and dwelling yield; and
(f) publish ACT Land and Property Reports not later than three months after the reporting period.
At its core, this motion is about transparency or lack thereof. This motion does not actually call upon the government to go about its business any differently than it is today. It calls upon the government to let the rest of us know what it is up to.
When any government goes about making it difficult for anyone to see what they are doing, when they set up frameworks that cloud data, when they distribute information in such a way that it is difficult to decipher, anyone could be forgiven for believing that that government had things that they were trying to hide.
In so many portfolio spaces we see this government behind closed doors. They know exactly what they are doing, but the voters of Canberra are the last people that they want to know that detail. They are probably the second last; I think that we, the Liberals, are the last. If you have nothing to hide, open up this process in such a way that the rest of us can see what you are doing and why.
We have brought this motion to the Assembly today because there are thousands of Canberrans who have been unable to secure a block of land to build a home as a result of the Labor-Greens government’s inadequate residential land supply and release. I have seen the proposed amendment. I know that the government will assert that the land supply is adequate and that it is meeting needs. It is just laughable.
There are thousands of Canberrans who are struggling to meet the highest rental costs in Australia because the Labor-Greens government cannot even meet its own targets to deliver land for residential housing and multi-unit development. While I understand that there has recently been some easing of property prices in response to rising interest rates, Canberra’s median price remains above $1 million. That does not offer
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