Page 2895 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 24 June 2009
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Mr Corbell then jumps forward to today. He has the gall to come in here and say that we have got this major financial lender. But look at the word “only”. Large or small, east or west, north or south—whatever measure you want—it is the only lender. It is two years, one lender, no detail.
It was up to the Canberra Times this morning to reveal some of the detail—some of the detail that the Chief Minister avoided through many questions this afternoon. Yesterday, we had to wait till the very last question of the day before the Labor Party had the gall to ask their dixer—the last question. He could not answer any of our questions.
We now know that they are in partnership. He will not detail what the nature of the arrangement is. He will not detail the nature of the arrangement. The problem for this government is that they have failed. Mr Corbell says that you cannot point to any policy. The former Treasurer pointed to the policy succinctly when he spoke to the Real Estate Institute. What was the policy on land? Squeeze them till they bleed but not until they die. Never a more accurate summary of the government’s policy into land release, into taxation, has ever been heard in this place: squeeze them till they bleed, but not until they die. That is the problem.
Mr Corbell: If the land is leasehold, it is leasehold.
MR SMYTH: That is the approach that the government take to it. They constrained land release. Mr Corbell is still against englobo.
Mr Seselja: He says it is community land.
MR SMYTH: It is community land. The socialists are alive and well in the ACT. The comrades are marching; the revolution will come; it is a community asset. Mr Corbell is damned by his own words. He is damned by his own words. He wants to go back to the policies that forced the price of land through the roof. He wants to go back to the policies that caused the squeeze, that caused the lack of housing affordability in the ACT. He has not learnt his lessons.
We have it there. The confession is there from the man who single-handedly destroyed homeownership aspiration in the ACT. He refuses to recant; he refuses to apologise in this place for what everybody knows to be the truth. It is succinctly summarised in the UDIA report: two things drove housing affordability up in this place, in this territory—the planning polices for which this minister was totally and solely responsible and the land release policy.
The problem is in the failure of this minister to acknowledge his mistakes and at least come down here and have the decency to apologise instead of perpetuating the mistruths that are spoken in this place. It is interesting that he continues. When he knows he is on a hiding, he goes through this—
Mr Corbell: Come on, Brendan. Substantiate your argument.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .