Page 130 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 26 February 2014
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inaccessibility of the territory plan means that it is leading to more errors in construction. Therefore, it is actually having a perverse outcome whereby because the document is inaccessible, because it is all but impossible to actually adhere to the territory plan through building works, people will have apathy towards the plan. Therefore, we are going to get more and more problems on building sites, more and more problems with plans and with constructions, because it is largely impossible to follow. Therefore, people will not even attempt to comply with all sections of the territory plan.
It is like legislation in this place. Whilst some legislation may be well intentioned, the fact is that if the legislation is not going to be enforced, all it does is restrict the good guys and the bad guys keep on going. The same might be said of the territory plan. Many clauses are targeted at people who will never comply, but unless they are actually enforced, all you are doing is restricting the people that will always try and do the right thing, the people that are not the problem builders in the ACT, the people that are actually trying to deliver the best product possible and in complete accordance with the rules set out in the territory plan.
The red tape and green tape is crushing the construction sector here in the ACT. The construction sector should be our ticket to a better economy. Instead, the construction sector is ailing. I am concerned that we have a government that does not want to see the construction sector flourish. I am concerned that this is because of the extreme ideological views of just a couple of members who have, in effect, hijacked cabinet and hijacked government. I urge members to support this motion and to make employment and growth through the construction sector more likely here in Canberra.
MR BARR (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Sport and Recreation, Minister for Tourism and Events and Minister for Community Services) (10.13): The government will not be supporting Mr Coe’s motion today. I understand he is desperately trying to deflect every possible bit of attention from his federal colleagues’ attempts to mug the ACT economy. I understand that the impending downturn in the construction sector is wholly as a result of reduced expectations of demand, both in commercial and residential activity, as a result of the impending mugging of the ACT economy. It is clearly evident that, regardless of what regulatory environment you operate within, if there is no demand for your product because your economy has been mugged by the federal government then you cannot build anything. You need tenants; you need purchasers in order to be able to construct new buildings and new houses. If all of the demand is stripped out of your economy by the biggest employer in the city sacking 12,000 people and significantly reducing its expenditure in your economy, that is going to impact on the commercial property market and it is going to impact on the residential market.
This government, however, is keenly aware of the role the construction sector plays in the territory economy, and we are going to take actions to support and encourage the growth of the sector. We will do that by progressing a number of major projects: the north side hospital, capital metro and city to the lake, as well as our support for the redevelopment of the Woden bus interchange and a range of other centre expansions, the construction of a new ACT office block in Gungahlin and a range of other significant capital works across the territory to support land release.
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