Page 2894 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 24 June 2009
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You hear this stuff—I was going to call it garbage, but I would be a bit more respectful—that comes from Mr Corbell’s mouth about this. You only have to go to the UDI report on housing affordability across this country, the urban design institute of Australia report. I think it is page 68 that says—
Mr Corbell: Urban Development Institute.
MR SMYTH: Okay; he knows the report. The Urban Development Institute. Thank you, Mr Corbell; you know the report. It says that there were two things that were destroying housing affordability in the ACT: the planning policies of the government and the land release policy of the government. We went from housing affordability in the ACT in 2001 being affordable across the board: whatever sector you looked at, whether it was the north, the south, the east or the west of the ACT, housing was affordable.
This man single-handedly destroyed housing affordability in the ACT and lost his planning minister job over it. I know he is still the planning minister in waiting. He is the planning shadow shadow: he has to come down and critique Mr Barr on every occasion.
Mr Seselja: He is studying planning, you know.
MR SMYTH: He is studying planning, isn’t he? He is studying. He is still studying planning. That is the problem; that is the problem with this former planning minister. He personally, single-handedly, destroyed housing affordability in the ACT by his planning regime and through his land release program. When he got a little bit hairy-chested and he stood up to his boss, he got slapped and got the flick.
This is the minister who single-handedly destroyed housing affordability in the ACT. To have him stand up and lecture this place about how well the government have done because they have released more land since the previous government—well, they have been in office longer than the previous government. You only have to hark back to the Labor government’s policies of 1993, 1994 and early 1995. They destroyed the housing market in the ACT. They flooded the market with their failed land release. They had economic problems; they could not balance their budget. It kind of sounds like now. They could not balance their budget and they flooded the market.
The reason we did not release land for a long period of time was that there was so much land that in the first two years of the former Liberal government they could not afford to release land because nobody would buy it. There was so much land out there. There was a failed Labor government and now we have another failing Labor government—because of the policies of this man, who single-handedly destroyed housing affordability in the ACT and was then relieved of his job. A little bit hairy-chested, he stood up to the boss, got slapped, got relieved.
Mr Seselja: It was the excuse they needed.
MR SMYTH: That was the excuse they wanted. The sighs of relief around this city when he lost that portfolio were enormous—just enormous.
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