Page 1756 - Week 06 - Thursday, 30 July 2020

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The Assembly voted—

Ayes 12		Noes 9
Mr Barr	Ms Orr	Miss C Burch	Mr Parton
Ms J Burch	Mr Pettersson	Mr Coe	Mr Wall
Ms Cheyne	Mr Rattenbury	Mrs Dunne
Ms Cody	Mr Steel	Mr Hanson
Mr Gentleman	Ms Stephen-Smith	Mrs Kikkert
Mr Gupta		Ms Lawder
Ms Le Couteur		Mr Milligan

Question resolved in the affirmative.

Housing—affordability

MR COE (Yerrabi—Leader of the Opposition) (3.13): I move:

That this Assembly:

(1) notes that:

(a) after years of ACT Labor, thousands of Canberrans are still priced out of the housing market;

(b) there has been no progress regarding housing or rental affordability;

(c) according to Domain’s June 2020 State of the Market report, the median rent in Canberra was $575 and the median house price was $819,000;

(d) annual rent of $30,000 is out of reach for many of Canberra’s “working poor”; and

(e) the Government’s land supply, planning system and tax regime has stifled the supply of new houses for rent; and

(2) calls on the Government to bring down the cost of renting in Canberra by:

(a) stopping the unfair increases to rates and taxes;

(b) bringing clarity and confidence to the planning system;

(d) ensuring that the rate of construction of townhouses and free standing homes keeps pace with demand.

Unfortunately, the housing situation in the territory is not getting better. In fact, it is getting worse very, very quickly. So many Canberrans are priced out of the housing market in the ACT. After 19 years of Labor 35,000 Canberrans are living in poverty, including 8,000 kids. We have a housing market that now has a median rent of $575 per week—$1,150 a fortnight after tax. That is a huge amount of money in anyone’s language. We also now have a median house price of $819,000.

When you have annual rents of $30,000, it is no wonder that so many Canberra families are doing it tough. It is no wonder that we have an increasing problem in the ACT regarding the working poor. It is no wonder that we have an increasing

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