Page 2897 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 24 June 2009

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Mr Corbell: I withdraw it, Mr Speaker.

MR SMYTH: That is standard operating procedure for Mr Corbell. He says these things knowing that he will have to withdraw them but he likes to get them on the record. He will not step outside this place and say it, Mr Speaker. He will not step outside this place and repeat what he said here outside this place, because he knows that he is wrong—absolutely wrong.

Mr Speaker, it is an interesting motion from Ms Burch today. Perhaps somebody should talk about it. She could not talk about it. If you really want to get people into homeownership, and we know there are many examples of young Canberrans—

Mr Seselja: You have got it wrong. It is terrible when your conscience starts to get to you.

Mr Corbell: The real reason that you guys do not like land rent is because it is based on a leasehold.

MR SPEAKER: Order, members! Mr Smyth has the floor.

MR SMYTH: We know that there are many examples of young Canberrans who in the Stanhope years could not afford to live in Canberra and had to go to Queanbeyan. We know about young families starting out; we know many examples. We know these people. We will not name them and we will not embarrass them, but they had to go. They had to leave the city they love, where they grew up, where they wanted to live, because they could not afford to pay for the land that Mr Corbell drove the prices up on, they could not afford to go through the planning system that Mr Corbell created, they could not afford to pay for the stamp duty Mr Corbell and others put in place. They went to places like Queanbeyan because they could not afford to live here—young Canberra families, starting out.

We took a policy at the last election to lift that burden of stamp duty for young homeowners, first homeowners, in the ACT. We wanted to help them. We have got a government that will not acknowledge the effectiveness of this program, even though it is going on in jurisdictions all around us.

Mr Corbell: That is the real reason, isn’t it? You probably want 999-year leases too. How long is it going to be before you bring back 999-year leases?

MR SMYTH: Now we hear the man who personally drove homeownership out of the range of so many prattling on. He does not like hearing this. He has got no response to it. He throws the red herrings out. He cannot address the reports. He refuses to address the facts. He ignores the reality that he—he alone—is single-handedly responsible for driving homeownership beyond the means of many ordinary Canberrans. He should stand up and apologise to them instead of sanctimoniously standing and lecturing us about our failings.

MS BURCH (Brindabella) (5.13), in reply: Mr Speaker, I have been absent from the chamber, but I have picked up a couple of things. What I have picked up is that


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