Page 1987 - Week 07 - Thursday, 13 August 2020
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We should note that we are in Australia’s first recession for decades. Unemployment is skyrocketing around the country and housing data is extremely volatile. For example, the HIA puts out a new homes sales data series each month. In the three months to May 2020, sales were down by 20.3 per cent at a national level. There was a substantial bounce in June but the HIA report is very cautious about whether this will continue.
I think it is right in its caution because since then we have seen a second wave of COVID in Victoria, which no doubt will have impacted on consumer confidence and, therefore, new house sales. To be blunt, in this environment a five-year detailed land release plan would not be worth the paper it is printed on. However, it would be very useful for industry and the community to hear from the government on how they plan to manage land release during the COVID crisis over the next 12 months.
I will turn briefly now to the amendment that I am moving. It reinserts the totally reasonable comments in paragraph (1) of Mr Coe’s motion. There is no reason to remove them, because they are truthful. I must admit, however, that we have talked about paragraph (1)(c). There could be a variety of interpretations of the meaning of that paragraph. I thought that it meant that the high cost of housing resulted in public and community housing costing an awful lot, but there was an alternative interpretation—that the high cost of housing meant that people could not afford it and therefore there were lots of demands on public and community housing. I would be quite interested if Mr Coe could talk a little bit more about what he really means by that.
In conclusion, the Greens strongly support government transparency and believe that it is totally reasonable for the government to provide updates on housing strategy and land release. However, in the current environment it cannot produce this detail within a fortnight. I also note Ms Berry’s amendment. While it is long, it is basically pointing out the fact that there are an awful lot of wrinkles in the housing market, and there are a lot of things that make positive and negative differences. Mr Coe has chosen some points and Ms Berry has chosen another set of points, but they are all relevant to the current housing affordability crisis that we find ourselves in.
So I will be voting for my amendment. Basically, I will be voting for everything! That is my plan, here. I will be voting for my amendment and then I will be voting for Ms Berry’s. Assuming that those two motions are passed, I will then vote for the motion as amended.
MR COE (Yerrabi—Leader of the Opposition) (4.16): I wish to respond to that pretty gutless speech by Ms Le Couteur. She is voting against the government publishing a strategy to address the lack of affordable rental accommodation in the ACT. She is actively saying that the community does not deserve to know the number of townhouses, the number of apartments and the number of standalone dwellings that are planned for the coming years. That is what she is voting against.
I would have thought that in her final fortnight in this place the concessions that the Greens have been giving the Labor Party for years and years would finally have stopped. But obviously that is not the case. Despite the fact that Minister Gentleman has given Ms Le Couteur a serve and has misrepresented her, she will still blindly
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