Page 632 - Week 02 - Thursday, 19 February 2015
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
They have actually put a tax in place, ably supported by Mr Rattenbury, that mitigates density. We all know about the lease variation charge. The latest quarterly report says that the lease variation charge was meant to bring in $7.29 million in the first half of the year. How much did it raise? It raised $2.79 million. It was $4.5 million short. Indeed, that is against a target of $14.58 million. But the original target when the tax came in was $26.3 million for this financial year.
This is Andrew Barr’s mining tax. It had all the promise of raising a fortune and has delivered nothing, yet has hindered the renewal of Civic. It has worked against the very policy position that Mr Corbell took—we needed densification because they need the bucks from the land sales. Indeed, we heard the Chief Minister yesterday say, “We will just release more land.” That is an answer; just release more land. Do you want density or not?
Let us face it: what city of this size in the world has 10 development fronts? The government is currently pushing land sales in Gungahlin, Molonglo and Kingston foreshore. We have got the city plan on or off the agenda—who knows? We have got city to the lake on and off the agenda—who knows? We have got the Northbourne corridor. We hear that 50,000 people are going to live there. The government is pushing Riverview. The government is pushing the Yarralumla brickworks. We know that East Lake, which was launched with great fanfare in 2002, still has not occurred. We have got the proposal of west Tuggeranong on the books. And of course we have got infill. So which is it?
This is a government that does not know what it wants. This is a government that, through that, has failed people of the ACT. Of course, that brings us to the social identity of Civic. Mr Corbell said in his document back in 2005 that we needed a city gateway. Now, in 2015, the answer to the city gateway is capital metro. In 2025, no doubt, Mr Corbell, it will be a different answer, because Mr Corbell does not deliver. In respect of his reputation for delivering capital works in this place, he has been flogged mercilessly in Auditor-General’s reports on all the projects that he touches. God alone knows what damage he will do to something like capital metro.
We know that around the world these metro projects very rarely come in on time or on budget. We saw Wellington just abandon theirs. We have seen Edinburgh just deliver half of their light rail for double the cost. So what will it be in the ACT, given Mr Corbell’s record? The GDE was started at $55 million. It came in close to $200 million. Who knows what he can do with something on the scale of capital metro, at $800 million-odd?
In terms of the social, what we still lack is a city heart. The things that the government claims success on are things that the private sector or non-ACT government bodies have done, despite the government. New Acton is a great success but the government did not help. They stood in the way and it took far longer than it should have done.
We were all talking about how hip and groovy Braddon is becoming. That is happening despite the government, which, in many cases, has just stood in the way. Mr Barr lauded the progress at ANU on city west. I think that is largely the work of the ANU, because it is certainly not a vision that the government had. (Time expired.)
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video