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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 8 Hansard (21 August) . . Page.. 3032 ..

MR PRATT (continuing):

Why have you failed to implement an effective, affordable housing strategy, which you promised the people of Canberra you would do?

MR WOOD: Mr Speaker, I think I heard Mr Pratt say the government imposes taxes of $48,000. Was that right?

Mr Pratt: Yes.

MR WOOD: I'd like to see a breakdown of that some time. I don't know where that comes from. Perhaps you've included the GST that the Commonwealth government imposes. If we look back in history, it was probably the trigger point for this rapid increase in housing prices.

The main thrust of Mr Pratt's question related to land supply. No-one, I don't think, will dispute here that you don't turn land supply on and off at the moment; it takes a long time. The supply of land we've been living off, certainly in the first year of this government, was what you people put into place, what you put out into the marketplace. That is what you put into it. I would assess that your judgment was very bad. As well as you can assess these things-and I acknowledge it is not always easy-there simply wasn't enough land out there. I think that's the case.

As I attend closely to the question of high housing costs, it is predominantly, in this age, the land component. I have seen graphs-I've no doubt you have too-that show the actual material costs of building a house have increased only as you would expect. But the rapid increase, not just in the ACT but elsewhere, is in the land component.

What are we doing? We are resuming the government control of land development. Mr Corbell has established additional to that a land reserve so that we can call on land rapidly-something you should have done-when the need arises. If you had thought of things like this, Mr Pratt, we might not have been in the circumstances that we are today.

The government is resuming land development so that the benefits of all the profits from that are returned to government; that we've got better management of it. And we anticipate an outcome that the land prices will steady-if nothing else, will certainly steady-and hold; and maybe, with the increased supply of land that will be put out there, will drop and houses will become more affordable. That is the main component of bringing about affordability, and that is the exact component that the government has been attending to.

Sorry, Mr Pratt, you just don't click your fingers and have it happen overnight.

MR PRATT: Mr Wood asked me to clarify a question. I do have the answer to that.

MR SPEAKER: You can ask a supplementary question, and that's the limit of it.

MR PRATT: Okay. The $48,000 is, in fact, HIA figures published last month. Minister, why have you failed to address affordable housing in the ACT?

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