Page 4091 - Week 13 - Thursday, 6 December 2007
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2002. There was a task force report in December 2002. Then we got a progress report on affordable housing in the ACT on 30 June 2005. Mr Pratt, look whose fingerprints are on this—it was authorised by Mr Hargreaves.
In 2001, 2002 and 2005 there was so much warning of the impending disaster. And what was the policy initiative taken by the government? “Squeeze them till they bleed but not until they dry and tighten the supply side” is the answer. That is it.
Mr Barr is here. I am sure he will, as the planning minister, get up and speak in a minute. I hope so. I hope he is going to lend his book on economics to Mr Stanhope, because he obviously does not understand the difference between supply and demand. The Chief Minister can whinge and whine as much as he likes but, as has been said by the experts at the housing affordability industry briefing, this has been caused by the states. It is mostly state and local government induced. That is the problem with housing affordability.
If you look at the report of an independent group who does an assessment on a regular basis of housing affordability, the UDIA state reports on housing affordability, at page 66 from June 2007 there is a chart, at figure 45, which shows that in 2001 in central Canberra, north Canberra and west Canberra everything is judged as affordable. By the end of 2006, in central and north Canberra there are serious constraints on affordability; and in west Canberra they are in affordability crisis.
We have had three reports at least to the government—in 2001, 2002 and 2005. We had the policy statement that the government intends to follow, which is to squeeze the market, a deliberate manipulation of the market. And what does it result in? It results in the blow-out of housing affordability. Whose fault is it? It is the government’s fault.
The Chief Minister can bleat all he likes, but his answer to the problem is: “They are fussy. It really is affordable.” That shows how arrogant and out of touch the Chief Minister is. If you have got teenagers or young people in their early 20s in your family and they are looking for a house, they can tell you how tough it is. Perhaps Mr Stanhope should go to one of the auctions, one of the ballots, where 700 people turn up for 50 blocks. “But it is because they are fussy that they do not get blocks.” It is always somebody else’s fault. This Chief Minister does nothing wrong, according to the Chief Minister, and that is the problem.
Even in question time today he was talking about the Illawarra Retirement Trust and it taking 17 months to build, from the completion of the DA, the approval of the DA, to the sod-turning. The government has powers. Perhaps the minister, when he stands, will tell us what he did to enforce the covenant that says you must start construction within 12 months. Why were they allowed to get away with it? Does it highlight that there was a flaw in the process that picked an inappropriate body to build something that they could not do in the terms of their agreement?
There were court cases over this issue because some local builders were overlooked and it went to the Illawarra Retirement Trust. They guaranteed that that trust could start and complete on time. Here we have, yet again, the Chief Minister bleating about
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