Page 1637 - Week 06 - Thursday, 23 July 2020
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
(2) calls on the Government to release more affordable land so that Canberrans can buy a house and land for a combined cost of less than $750 000.
I very much hope that people in this place will agree to this motion, because it is a motion about the welfare of current and future generations of Canberrans. We owe it to them to make sure that the same opportunities that have been afforded to previous generations are also afforded to future generations, that being the opportunity to buy a block of land and to build a house.
The commonwealth government has a very generous scheme in operation at the moment: $25,000 for a deposit can be leveraged at least five times to help to purchase a property. That figure of $25,000 is significant. Of course, right across the country, $25,000 is enough for many people to tip over into being able to afford a property. But here in the ACT there are so few blocks of land available that will allow for a house and land package under $750,000—so few blocks of land.
I note that the government think that you will be able to get a house and land package with a block of land for $420,000. If you are paying $420,000 for a block of land, that allows just $330,000 for construction. It means that, for that $750,000 house and land package, the land component is 55 per cent. In times gone by, even recent times gone by, the land component was more like 20 per cent or 30 per cent. But this government seem to be bragging about the fact that it is now 55 per cent. And why is that? It is because this government gouges Canberrans. It gouges the people it is meant to be representing.
We have the LDA, now called the Suburban Land Agency, gouging Canberrans with their super profits. If anyone else was allowed to have profits of 75 per cent, it would be ropeable, but for some reason it is okay for Andrew Barr and the Labor Party to have super profits when it comes to charging Canberrans.
It is just not fair that this government has shut so many people out of the housing market. Why is it that just a few kilometres from here, over the border in New South Wales, you can get a house and land package for $600,000? In fact, there are some over in Queanbeyan that are even less than $600,000. Yet, here, you will be very hard-pressed to find any for less than $750,000. That is why so many Canberrans are voting with their feet. That is why, when you walk the streets of Googong, Jerrabomberra, Murrumbateman or elsewhere, it is full of Canberrans living in exile. It is full of Canberrans that could not afford to buy in the ACT, yet this government does not seem to care.
This government does not seem to care that there are so few blocks available, and the ones that are available do not have space for a tree in the backyard, the front yard or on the street. There are so many suburbs in Canberra that are forever going to be lacking trees because of this government’s planning policy, this government’s land release policy and its decision to gouge Canberrans.
It just should not be that way, and the Canberra Liberals will do everything we can to right this government’s wrong. We want to make sure that Canberrans can afford to buy a block of land, that they can afford to build a house and, importantly, that they
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video