Page 884 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 2 April 2008
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long-term program and the government is committed to it. We believe that, over time—and we have always made the point that it will require time—we will achieve significant change and deliver benefits to people within the ACT seeking to enter the housing market.
Canberrans could be excused for wondering what the Liberals’ plan is. We have not seen the plan from the Liberal Party in relation to this. The reason we have not seen a housing affordability plan from the Liberal Party, other than their commitment to abolish the Land Development Agency, is that they do not have a plan. Their plan, essentially, is to carp, cavil and criticise while, all around them, Labor is busy, in partnership with the private sector, with getting on and getting things done. More initiatives are scheduled for delivery soon. For example, our innovative land rent scheme will be rolled out very soon—another helping hand for those contemplating entry into home ownership.
Affordable housing has been, and will remain, a priority for the government over the coming years. I am proud of what we have achieved to date and I look forward to the ACT remaining at the forefront in this area of national policy development. It is a pity that, to the extent that we have made significant gains here in the ACT, many of those gains have been severely impacted by the Liberal Party’s economic mismanagement that has led to an average Canberra householder, young families, having to pay, on average, an additional $367 a month. That $367 a month, month on month on month, is as a result of Liberal Party economic mismanagement stretching over the last decade.
Liberal Party mismanagement: profligate spending, outrageous and audacious attempts at vote buying, the promising of tax cuts and the driving of inflation. The greatest issue facing young homeowners today in the ACT is the Liberal Party legacy of a $367 a month extra burden on their monthly mortgage payments—$110,000 over the life of an average mortgage. That is the Liberal Party legacy. To the extent that governments around Australia, in partnership with industry, have sought to deal with issues around affordability, they have been seriously constrained in their capacity to get on top of the problem as quickly as they would like by the Liberal Party’s indifference to the young working families of Australia as a result of their economic mismanagement, which has driven inflation to the point where an average young Canberra family, courtesy of the Liberals, now pays an additional amount of just under $400 a month for their mortgage. It is a matter of eternal shame for the Liberal Party.
MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (4.36): We once again see the hypocrisy of Jon Stanhope when he talks about young families in the ACT.
Mr Stanhope: You remember young families now, do you?
MR SESELJA: We are going to have the Chief Minister again preach to me about how I am out of touch with young families. We look forward to that debate going on, as the Chief Minister leaves the chamber. He can never stand to hear the response to his diatribe. He can’t stand to hear the response. He throws the diatribe out there without any justification. We know that he and his office and the new planning
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