Page 1234 - Week 04 - Thursday, 26 March 2015
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
This government seems to ignore stakeholders when it makes changes to the planning system. Consultation is not just about having a meeting. It is about taking into account the views expressed and making, where possible, where relevant and where appropriate, the changes that come up at these consultations. Often the first that stakeholders hear about new legislation is when it is introduced. This can mean significant disadvantage to players in the market.
I would like to mention light rail. The government is spending a huge amount of money on light rail—money which could be used for other urban renewal projects. The project will only benefit a small proportion of our population and is something that is quite unpopular in many areas of the city.
The government seems to develop plans for local shop upgrades, but while it has many plans, it never seems to get around to actually completing those upgrades. In February of this year the Chief Minister talked about the ACT government’s vision to deliver urban renewal in Canberra. Part of that urban renewal agenda is a major overhaul of public housing properties in the ACT, with the government selling off the following public housing properties as part of its urban renewal agenda: Bega Court in Reid; Currong apartments and Allawah Court in Braddon; the Dickson flats and connected vacant land on Northbourne Avenue; Dickson garden flats; Lyneham and De Burgh, north and south, Lyneham; Northbourne flats, Braddon; Northbourne flats, Turner; Owen flats, Lyneham; the Red Hill housing precinct; Strathgordon Court, Lyons; and the Stuart flats, Griffith.
In the Chief Minister’s media release of 18 February 2015, he said:
As with all changes in public housing arrangements, residents are being consulted …
I have attended a few barbecues at Owen flats, not just one, and I have listened to residents’ concerns about their upcoming relocation. Their main concern seems to be the lack of consultation and the lack of clarity about their relocation. They do not know when they will be expected to move and they would like to have some certainty. They would like to know a process and a timetable for when they can start packing up their belongings.
It is not something that they want to have thrust upon them with little notice and little consultation. Some of them may have other plans. They may be going to have a holiday or going to visit family away from their current location. It is very stressful for them to be wondering if they are going to come back and be expected to move the next day, for example, or come back and find that they should have moved while they were away. All they are asking for is a bit of certainty in the government’s timetable.
Balancing the residential product mix between current and future demand will require a greater focus on mixed products, including units, houses and affordable housing. First, the government is reworking the housing along Northbourne Avenue. It is important to have a good mix of tenure amongst those—whether that includes older people, younger people, students, people on lower incomes or people on higher incomes—so that you are continuing the salt and pepper approach throughout the city, not just putting in high-end expensive housing along that corridor.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video