Page 99 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 14 February 2012
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to rise this afternoon, and I thank Mr Doszpot for raising this very important matter of public importance—affordable housing. He and I are in agreement that it is a very important issue for the Canberra community, and it is a very important issue for the government.
It would seem as we approach the election at the end of the year that today presents an ideal opportunity for the Canberra Liberals, having raised this matter of public importance, to use the forum of the territory parliament to table an affordable housing policy. Wouldn’t that be a turn-up for the books?
Ms Burch: He didn’t do it?
MR BARR: No, we had a long dissertation from Mr Doszpot that, if he went back and reflected on what he has just read out—I will give Mr Doszpot the benefit of the doubt that he did not write that speech because this is not his area of shadow policy expertise—it would be clear that there would appear to be a view in the Liberal Party that the government’s policy goals in land release should be to maximise the return to budget rather than to focus on affordable housing measures.
He quoted Mr Winnel’s comments from the paper the other day where he made the correct observation that, yes, if we have a higher affordability target then, yes, we are sacrificing revenue. That is true. But that is a social policy outcome that you would seek to achieve by having such an affordable housing target. You cannot do both. You can either pursue a policy that is entirely about maximising the return on land sales or you can have an approach that recognises that there is a market failure. That is what I was alluding to in my appearance before the committee the week before last in relation to what has emerged in the Australian housing market.
The Canberra Times editorial of the other day picked up on the point that those who were in the housing market when the boom started have done very well. Those who did not happen to be in the elevator when the market went up have found themselves in a difficult position. Where there is clearly a market failure in the ACT housing market at this point is that supply has been geared towards the needs of double-income professional households and that what is needed is further intervention in relation to the supply side at the affordable end of the market. Hence the government’s affordable housing strategies that Mr Doszpot outlined somewhat disparagingly in his contribution. I will give him credit; he at least alluded to them, so it is good to see that there is some recognition of the policy effort that has occurred.
You can seek no greater assurance that your policy work is broadly accepted as being good public policy than when it is picked up by other jurisdictions of the opposing political flavour. When we see our housing affordability policies, particularly our initiatives in relation to land rent and some of the other affordable housing strategies, being looked at by Western Australia, South Australia and other governments around the country and those policy initiatives being recognised as being nation leading, that is a pretty encouraging sign that the policy work that was undertaken is on the right track.
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