Page 1967 - Week 07 - Thursday, 13 August 2020
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and I was asked whether I could think of anything where the situation would be such that it would need to be called in. I am not really sure if there is anything.
What have we done recently? We have built an emergency department on the top of a school oval. We did not call that in; we used the public health powers to do that. I suspect that every time a situation is really needing action that quickly, there would be things like the public health powers—which I did not actually have any idea about; I had to read up about how it is that we can put an emergency department on a school oval.
Historically, and continually, the Greens do not think that call-in is a good idea, and we have legislation to improve that. We also have objections to this in particular. That part of Canberra has been very contentious for a very long time. This is, in fact, the second call-in on this site, not the first call-in. The fact that it has been very contentious for a very long time behoves the government to think, “If this is the case, let’s do the consultation properly. We don’t need to add to community angst by not following the normal processes.”
It is just crazy. There is really no need to do it. The people in the community who are already upset about the decision are only going to feel worse about it, are only going to get more and more of the view that the government does not listen to them, that there is a conspiracy et cetera. Hopefully, it is not that bad.
I have no idea on what grounds Minister Gentleman feels that a call-in is necessary, but call-ins have in some instances been done for public housing projects. The Greens are very much in favour, of course, of public housing. When my colleague Minister Rattenbury was housing minister, he successfully had Common Ground in Gungahlin approved without using call-in powers. I would very much like to see Common Ground in Gungahlin built the way that it was planned to be built—that is, with an extra building. It would double the size of Common Ground Gungahlin but it would not double the costs of running it; it would be a very cost-effective way of improving the public and social housing.
Call-in powers for public housing are particularly problematic, because if the situation is that the existing neighbours are not feeling particularly happy about their new neighbours then it behoves the government to make sure that the existing neighbours know that the proper proceedings have actually been followed. In many instances of community objections to new public housing developments, they would object as much if it were a private housing development going on a site where the new public housing is. It is too easy to come to the conclusion that people just are against public housing. Most people in Canberra actually think that we should have fair, affordable housing in Canberra. I note that we are going to have another debate about this shortly, on Mr Coe’s motion, and I welcome that.
I think that it is incorrect of the government to feel that all objections to public housing are based on the types of tenants rather than the buildings themselves. I feel that calling in Common Ground in Dickson just gives it an obstacle that it does not have to overcome. There are people concerned about the development. Let the proper processes be gone through. Let the government be in a situation where it can say,
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