Page 101 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 14 February 2012
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Obviously we are all pleased that so many individuals, couples and families are making the decision to call Canberra home. As I have stated, the territory is a great place to live, work and study. The government will continue to encourage this growth in our city. However, the continued strength in both the purchase and rental markets has meant that housing affordability remains a key issue for many Canberrans, particularly those in lower income quintiles. Accordingly, this remains a key issue for the Labor government.
The first two phases of the affordable housing action plan have been successful in delivering properties as a part of residential development in greenfield areas. Yet, despite the influx of affordable properties and the significant increase in supply of residential properties over the past few years, this work is not yet finished. We recognise that the majority of households in lower income brackets are struggling to purchase residential property in the territory. Our analysis indicates that only households at the top of the second lowest income quintile can afford to purchase a property within the current affordable housing threshold of $337,000. However, if land rent is able to be applied, then households in the mean and upper second lower quintile can also afford to purchase.
This is the very land rent scheme that the Canberra Liberals, and the Leader of the Opposition in particular, have opposed every step of the way. It is another example of their negative stance on everything that the government is doing in this area and their preference to stand on the sidelines and complain without coming up with any policy alternatives of their own. The challenge remains this afternoon, having raised this matter of public importance, for the Leader of the Opposition to come down to the chamber and give us a bit of policy. It would be a first. I know he is busy filling out time sheets and making sure his 10 staff are under control, but if he could just turn his attention a little from the one administrative task and the one responsibility he has that he cannot even manage and come down here and deliver some policy, that would be a welcome change.
Whilst we are more than happy to acknowledge the significant effort the commonwealth government makes in addressing housing affordability across a range of policies and programs—for example, commonwealth rent assistance and the national rental assistance subsidy scheme—there remain a number of areas where we would like to see the commonwealth make a greater effort to assist.
The Howard government’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act’s—EPBC—environmental clearance process is complex and time consuming. This is especially the case for new, large-scale urban development fronts such as Molonglo, which involves several suburbs over a broad swathe of undeveloped land to house an eventual population of around 55,000 people. The evaluation of all environmental issues in so broad an area of land is far more labour intensive and demanding than a more straightforward evaluation of one specific development project such as a new building.
That said, I am pleased to report that both the ACT and the commonwealth have cooperated in preparing environmental documentation to support the release of land in
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