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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 13 Hansard (9 December) . . Page.. 4307 ..

For example, in 1994/95, in the dying days of the Labor Government, it released 469 blocks of land at Gordon 9 and Conder 1. Since then little has been released, as the Carnell Government did all it could to reduce the oversupply across Canberra.

It is true that land has been released in recent months as part of existing joint venture agreements (again entered into by Labor). But this is because demand in Tuggeranong has sharply risen (and that's a good thing, not a bad thing). Those that have been released are selling well, a further indication that more people WANT to live in Tuggeranong.

Land across Canberra is zoned under the Territory Plan. It's incredible for Labor to complain about this - when it was in government, the areas around Tuggeranong were zoned as primarily residential and it released a large number residential blocks!

I would argue that the notion that all we have to do is simply convert residential zoned land into light industrial as simplistic in the extreme.

Firstly I'm sure that there would be lots of residents who bought properties on the understanding they were not next door to industrial areas and they would be upset to suddenly have industrial firms set up next door.

Secondly there is industrial land available at nearby Hume, which is 10mins from Tuggeranong and in Fyshwick, about 15min away. There is no reason why people working in these areas would not live in the south - again that's the beauty of Canberra - it's size and ease of getting around.

As always, this Government would be happy to talk to and help any business that might want to set up there and I urge them to contact me. After all that's how Bunnings and Ansett and a range of other great developments went ahead.

It is important to note that this government deliberately takes a Canberra-wide view when it comes to promoting business and jobs growth. It's one of the reasons why we have 11,500 more jobs than when we came to government, the highest number of jobs ever and the lowest unemployment rate for nine years. And that's despite losing 7,500 Commonwealth public service jobs over the same period.

For the first time since 1989, a Territory government has been doing something about encouraging private sector growth across Canberra. And it's working.

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