Page 1849 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 1 May 1991
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MR JENSEN (3.29): Mr Speaker, talk about loitering with intent! The remarks that I have just heard from Mrs Grassby are a prime example of that. However, I do not propose to engage in the sort of personal attack that we heard from Mrs Grassby this afternoon in her opening remarks.
Mrs Grassby: You could not do it as well as I can, though.
MR JENSEN: Yes, Mrs Grassby, we all know the story about empty vessels making the most noise.
Mrs Grassby: You are talking about yourself.
MR SPEAKER: Order, members!
MR JENSEN: We certainly heard a little bit about that from you this afternoon. Unfortunately this has been par for the course from the second-class Opposition opposite us in the chamber. With these few remarks, Mr Speaker, I promise to treat such remarks with the contempt that they deserve, and I have no doubt that the community of Canberra will very quickly reach the same conclusion and do the same.
Mr Speaker, let me get back to the matters at hand, now that I have dealt with the sort of nonsense and drivel we have just heard from Mrs Grassby. In addition to the public housing assistance program which my colleague Ms Maher will outline, it is appropriate to indicate what we have achieved to ensure adequate land and housing supply in the ACT. The level of allotment production and sales in the Territory has remained steady over the last few years. For example, the Indicative Planning Council, or IPC, which is a joint government-industry body with representatives from Australia-wide organisations, makes recommendations as to the likely demand for housing needs in the various States and Territories.
Over recent years, the IPC has been recommending that there is likely to be a demand for housing starts in the ACT in the vicinity of 2,400 to 2,900 per year. Obviously, this relates to the growth rate of the ACT population, which is currently just over the 2 per cent mark. The land development program provides the blueprint for land development to meet the ACT's housing needs. The program of single residential unit land sales and multi-unit development sites, together with redevelopments in places such as Kingston, have met the supply figures recommended by the IPC.
Of course, Mr Speaker, those people who are familiar with the discussion papers issued by the Territory Planning Authority in the lead-up to the development of the ACT plan - the new Territory Plan - will note that in those papers there was reference to the requirement for increasing population densities in certain major centres to encourage and assist in the use of an effective and efficient public transport system. I notice Mr Connolly
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