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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 3 Hansard (27 May) . . Page.. 647 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

Mr Speaker, anybody who wants to look at the orange bits can do so; they can see these locations on the secret Territory Plan and how it will affect them; and the funny thing about it is that you do not need a password, you do not need a decoder ring and you do not even need a funny handshake.

Mr Humphries: A secret handshake?

MR SMYTH: No, no secret handshakes. Seriously, Mr Speaker, there is a problem with people who do not look at the plan before they buy their houses. Indeed, I am aware of a number of cases where, perhaps, people have not been informed by real estate agents about the planning in their area. That is clearly a problem, and I have asked my department to look at a range of options to ensure that people are aware of the planning regime that affects the blocks that surround where they have purchased.

The Government's other secret plan, of course, is the land release program. Mr Hargreaves's comments about that are interesting in terms of Labor's record for land release. This Government assesses the need for land release according to two broad criteria. First, there is the planning consideration, which includes demand for land. The second criterion is about recognising the value of land as an important community asset. We take this very seriously, Mr Speaker. When the Carnell Government came to office in 1995 the housing market in the wake of Labor was a disaster. The former Labor Government appeared to have only one criterion: "How much land can we flog to fund our budget deficits?". The result was the dramatic oversupply of land that sent house prices plummeting and left an oversupply of blocks and houses for this Government to clear up.

The example that raises all this, Mr Speaker, is what we call Gordon 9. Mr Hargreaves has called for the stopping of all development in Tuggeranong. Let us look at who signed the joint venture to develop Gordon 9. The answer is that Labor signed that, Mr Speaker. Gordon 9 demonstrates the scope of the problem left by Labor. If they released the land in 1994-95 - and that is when it was released - why is it, Mr Speaker, that this land is only being developed four years later?

Ms Carnell: Because there is so little need.

MR SMYTH: That is right. It is because there was no market for that land. It was released much too early, in the face of an already flooded market. Mr Speaker, this Government has had a series of the tightest land release programs since self-government simply because we had no choice. The Carnell Government inherited a flooded market, and we have still literally thousands of Labor released blocks on the market, including Labor's release of Gordon 9. Mr Speaker, in calling for no more development in Tuggeranong all Mr Hargreaves has done has been to admit Labor's shocking record in the past, and we should congratulate him for his honesty.

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