Page 129 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 26 February 2014
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My motion also calls on the government to significantly reduce the lease variation charge. Whilst most people in the industry do welcome codification of variations, I think the level at which the variations are set is far too high. In actual fact, in the vast majority of instances the lease variation charge is contrary to the government’s stated policy of increasing infill and increasing density in our town centres or inner suburbs.
I think the government also needs to put a hold on further increases in levies for the portable long service leave. Whilst there are many people that will say portable long service leave is a good thing, the fact is if it is going to reduce employment, if it is going to make it harder for employers to put on people, it is not helping the industry at all, nor is it helping Canberra families.
My motion also calls on the government to significantly reduce commence and complete fees for commercial properties. Whilst I think it is fair to say that we do want to have a system in place which encourages people to construct and not land bank, the fact is that the commence and complete fee structure we have at the moment is stifling investment so much that construction is not getting off the ground at any time and nobody is better off as a result of the system in place at present.
The government also must abandon their monopoly of land supply. At present it is simply too hard for builders, and especially smaller builders, to obtain land and to put their skills into practice. At present every builder that I speak to will say that they have a waiting list of people who want to build, who want land, who want to construct a family house, who want to invest in the ACT but who are not able to do so because of the lack of available land here in the ACT. As I was saying earlier, it is no wonder so many people are moving across the border to the Queanbeyan City Council’s jurisdiction because they are simply making land available, whether it be Googong, Tralee or elsewhere.
Part (f) of my motion calls on the government to improve ACTPLA’s performance by minimising their demands and improving their decision times. I think every builder, architect and others involved in the property sector has a horror story about dealing with ACTPLA. Unfortunately, it is not just one or two horror stories. We have got horror story after horror story. ACTPLA should be there to serve the industry. Instead, it seems that at times they are there to serve themselves, to create work for themselves and often, it seems, to drag the chain and make it harder and harder to invest here in here in the territory.
Finally, part (g) in my motion calls on the government to simplify the territory plan. As it stands at the moment, the territory plan is largely an inaccessible document. It is a document which is largely incomprehensible. It is impossible to work out which parts apply and to what extent they apply. This is not good for investment in the ACT. Anybody who has looked at the territory plan would know that that is a cumbersome document which does not clearly articulate to what extent parts of the territory plan apply to their relevant circumstances.
As it stands at the moment, the territory plan is in effect thousands of pages long and totally jumbled in terms of its structure, totally jumbled in terms of its layout regarding residential, commercial and other works. It seems to me that the
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