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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 8 Hansard (27 June) . . Page.. 2352 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

You might recall, Mr Deputy Speaker, that the expected result for 2001-02 was estimated in March of this year to be an operating surplus of $18 million. The latest estimate in this budget drops that to a loss of $2 million. One of the main reasons for that drop is Labor's failure to release land in an orderly way. Labor has failed to sell 1,000 blocks for residential housing this year-2001-02-and has forgone an estimated $25 million in revenue. At the same time, home affordability has worsened in this city.

A sensible land release program, which was in place before Labor took office, would have seen the budget remain in surplus, even on this government's slightly shonky figures. Labor's takeover of land development will see the government lose $32 million in 2003-04, compared with the current year, and contribute to an operating loss in that year.

In the following year, which will be the final year of this government, the shortfall from land revenue compared with now is forecast to be $20 million. Mr Deputy Speaker, Labor is knowingly forgoing $52 million in years two and three of its term, in order to satisfy the left's ideological commitment to socialise land development.

This proposal has the potential to get far worse. The minister, Mr Corbell, was advised that the cost of resuming public land development was between $75 and $100 million. If this forecast is even close-do not forget it is a public service estimate, not ours-the budget surplus projected in future years, when Labor may not even be in government, is doomed. The ACT could pay for this folly for the next decade, in the same way that losses from Rosemary Follett's foray into land development cost taxpayers for many years after.

Mr Stefaniak: That $344 million of ours was looking good!

MR HUMPHRIES: Yes, indeed, Mr Stefaniak!

There is a history of making losses from government land projects. When the Commonwealth government ran land development in the 1980s, it lost over $60 million in the space of just two years. Those losses were the reason that the then Commonwealth Labor government privatised land development in the late 1980s-to avoid those risks to taxpayers.

The land release program announced yesterday by Mr Corbell is an exercise in deception. He says he is preparing 3,093 blocks for release, but 1,100 of those blocks will never be released. Why? Well, 220 sites in Watson and Macquarie have not even been identified as yet, and 400 blocks in Lawson are not even owned by the ACT government-they belong to the Commonwealth. We understand those blocks are not for sale. This deceit was compounded by Mr Corbell, including 1,000 dual occupancy sites for release, having carved out for himself political territory in this city as the slayer of dual occupancies in Canberra's leafy streets.

Let us be clear. Simon Corbell, the man who has campaigned for years on the question of dual occupancies, has proposed, in this land release program, to double the number of dual occupancies from 500 to 1,000 for the next financial year. Can you believe the breathtaking hypocrisy of that step?

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