Page 938 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 29 March 2011
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is, within three years. We are investigating whether we do need to be more prescriptive in the rules around the 20 per cent rule, but once again I will have to take some further advice on exactly where that consideration and that particular thinking is up to. It is fair to say, Ms Le Couteur, from my answer that we do have some concerns about how to maintain the integrity of this particular aspect of the affordable housing program.
MS BRESNAN: A supplementary.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Ms Bresnan.
MS BRESNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Chief Minister, has the government considered other ways for developers to contribute to affordable housing, aside from offering lower priced housing, such as contributing to public housing investment?
MR STANHOPE: I thank Ms Bresnan for the question. In relation to the capacity for private sector developers to contribute, it is fair to say that in relation to a number of the other significant aspects of the affordable housing strategy, the private sector’s involvement, of course, is integral to the success of some of those proposals. I could mention land rent; I could mention, indeed, the partnerships and relationships that exist in regard to OwnPlace and CHC Affordable Housing. But I am not sure that that is the intent of the question. I am not aware, as I seek to explore the possibilities for private sector involvement in other affordable housing proposals for public housing, and I will take the detail of the question on notice.
MS HUNTER: A supplementary, Mr Speaker?
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Ms Hunter.
MS HUNTER: Minister, how is the target applied to all multi-unit developments, including smaller developments that are part of suburban infill?
MR STANHOPE: The 20 per cent target applies only to land sold by the ACT government and it applies only to greenfields at this stage. To the extent that there are infill sites that are owned and disposed of by the government, there is a capacity and we are moving to apply that 20 per cent rule universally. It does apply broadly. I think if I were to take advice on the number of units of land sold for housing, the percentage of those to which the 20 per cent target applies would be well into the 90s. It is universally applied.
There is an issue, and of course it is very much at the heart of some of the conversation at the recent meeting I attended of the Dickson residents action group in relation to the need for affordable housing in inner areas of Canberra and how that can be achieved and an expectation that the government might achieve that. The response to that, in relation to infill, particularly in areas such as north Canberra, is that the government’s capacity to provide affordable housing is restricted very much to land which we own and, indeed, 20 per cent of all housing in Dickson, interestingly, is public housing.
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