Page 98 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 14 February 2012
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Bob Winnel of the Village construction company, the ACT’s biggest affordable housing supplier, says the government’s strategy of mandating segments of lower cost stock in new estates was costing the government money—taxpayers’ money, I would point out. “A blanket 20 per cent requirement of affordable housing in those new estates means a decline in revenue for the sites sold,” Mr Winnel was quoted as saying.
So who else do we blame, Minister Barr? Yesterday the Treasurer suggested it was federal red tape that was holding up the release of more land for housing. The ACT government has had plans for land release in Molonglo and Gungahlin going back years, but according to our Treasurer it is the federal department of the environment that is dragging the chain.
I do not know when the ACT government submitted applications for environmental protection assessments—I am sure it was on time, Mr Barr—to the commonwealth department for house blocks, but I do know how tardy they were in respect of the new Catholic high school in Throsby. While former education minister Barr was quite willing to publicly support the new Catholic high school, the fact remains that his government did not submit the appropriate referral papers until September last year. When they did that, it was incomplete. Last year we had building delays in Kingston because, not surprisingly, asbestos was found there, and now we have a lack of due process and an inability to complete the paperwork in a timely manner for a new Catholic high school.
How does Canberra address its housing crisis? Get those who are pushing these failed policies and mismanaging the ACT economy off the government benches. Only the ACT Liberals have a workable, affordable vision for addressing Canberra’s appalling housing prices. Only then will Canberra families have any hope of the great Australian dream—homeownership. Homeownership is being increasingly denied to Canberra families because of 11 long years of Labor mismanagement in every aspect of our economy.
I cannot finish without highlighting the significant role that the other part of government in this chamber has played. I refer to the Greens, who pontificate on much and prevaricate on much but deliver little of substance, and certainly no scrutiny of this government at any time. Labor has been aided and abetted by a party with a costly and flawed ideology that has allowed waste to flourish and prevented the blowtorch of scrutiny on so many pieces of this government’s legislation and on so many acts of this government’s mismanagement.
The Greens cannot suggest for a minute they are not co-authors of this mangled economy. They need to be accountable and they need to also take responsibility for the expensive place that Canberra is today. I have welcomed this opportunity to raise this matter of significant importance to every Canberran—the affordability of housing in the ACT.
MR BARR (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development and Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation) (4.42): I am delighted
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