Page 2275 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 28 August 2007
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MR SESELJA (Molonglo) (9.39): Before I get back to some of the claims that Mr Stanhope made, I will respond to the continuing claim from the Chief Minister that Canberra is affordable. He is failing to recognise the pain that his government, through the Land Development Agency and its other agencies, has caused to many first home buyers and potential first home buyers in the territory. He keeps going on about how affordable our jurisdiction is, when anyone who goes to the outskirts of Canberra knows that the cheapest possible house you can get now stands at about $300,000, at the very southern tip of Banks or the outer edge of Charnwood.
It is quite a slap to all those who have been affected by this government’s policies that it continues to claim that the ACT is an affordable jurisdiction. It is not affordable. It is not affordable for those who have been forced out by this government’s squeeze on land release. The Chief Minister has as good as acknowledged it himself: it has been his government’s policies propping up the LDA’s bottom line in order to get higher profits. That, of course, flows on to first home buyers. The government has kept the price of land up through flawed policies. It is now, belatedly, trying to do something about it by sacking the planning minister and making some changes in the LDA. We welcome those belated changes.
I will get on to the LDA in a minute, but I want to respond to Mr Stanhope’s earlier comments. Firstly, he talks about the comments that I referred to in relation to Nic Manikis. He says that there was just an ambiguous comment, or words to that effect. In the documents we have, there are two references which are more than an ambiguous comment, I would suggest. In October, a minute of the ACT Planning and Land Authority highlights one of the issues and says that Mr Manikis has expressed the view that the Chief Minister has already committed a site for the proposed purpose. Later, we have an email which says:
I understand that Nic Manikis had put up a proposal not supporting the site for the health facility but the Chief Minister is determined to proceed.
The other area that Mr Stanhope did not address at all was my questioning of him, and Mr Stefaniak’s and Mrs Burke’s questioning of him, in the estimates. He has not addressed this issue. The transcript reads:
MR SESELJA: They were going to auction it, though, weren’t they?
Mr Stanhope: No. Actually, you have been misled, too, Mr Seselja.
He goes on to say that there was no impending auction or imminent auction, when the documents show that the LDA was planning to auction it some six weeks later. The Chief Minister has completely failed to respond to that. Is this another case of the documents being completely wrong? If that is the case, what faith can the community have in any documents that are produced by the public servants in relation to this? He said that there was no impending auction, when the LDA was planning to auction it six weeks later. That sounds to me as though it is an impending auction.
Mr Stanhope: No date.
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