Page 2712 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 29 June 2010
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improvement in the emergency department, not that the Liberal Party want to acknowledge that. In terms of our costs, we are down to 106 per cent, so we are about six per cent above the national cost for a health episode, and that is largely the difference in superannuation, Mr Hanson. Unless you want to retrospectively change the commonwealth superannuation scheme in the public sector—the CSS and PSS—you are not going to get much movement on that.
Land—sales
MS LE COUTEUR: My question is to the Minister for Land and Property Services and concerns the land sales in Wright and Coombs. Minister, given that I understand that the estate development plans for Wright and Coombs have not yet been approved by ACTPLA, how is it that the LDA is able to sell blocks in these suburbs, especially given that the block and section numbers could not presumably have been assigned yet?
Mr Stanhope: I beg your pardon, Ms Le Couteur, I missed the start of your question.
MS LE COUTEUR: We are talking about selling land in Wright and Coombs.
Mr Smyth: He is dreaming of Spain and cycling.
Mr Stanhope: I am sorry, I couldn’t hear because of the interjections. Please start again.
MS LE COUTEUR: Third time, with feeling, yes. This is about selling the land in Wright and Coombs. I understand that ACTPLA has not yet approved the estate development plans in Wright and Coombs. Given that, how could LDA sell the blocks in these suburbs? How would they be able to assign the block and section numbers, given the estate development plan has not yet been approved?
MR STANHOPE: Thank you, Ms Le Couteur, and I do beg your pardon for that lack of attention by me to the start of your question. Yes, there has been some commentary on the appropriateness or capacity of selling land in Wright in advance of finalisation, certainly, of the development of the infrastructure and some of the technical aspects of planning.
I have received briefings on the particular issue, most particularly from the Department of Land and Property Services and, indeed, the LDA. They have negotiated and consulted with ACTPLA in relation to the selling timetable. All ACT government agencies—that is, ACTPLA, LAPS and the LDA—are more than comfortable with the processes that were put in place and believe them to be appropriate and believe that it would be reasonable, in the context of overarching government priority and policy in relation to land release and the need to continue to drive our housing market, the best-performing housing market in Australia, to actually deal with continuing pent-up demand and to allow those home buyers, those people who have opted to purchase land in Wright, to actually go through the process of designing, engaging builders and building a house when the land is ready to be built on.
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