Page 2898 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 24 June 2009
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Mr Seselja referred to flawed policies—our robust, innovative, affordable housing policies. At least we have a policy. We document our policy; we share our policy.
Mr Seselja: Can’t they give you a longer speech in the Chief Minister’s office?
MS BURCH: Silence, please. At least we do have policies and we are happy to share them. We are happy to document. We are happy to support Canberra families into affordable housing. It is a cliche, but in the Canberra local press Zed is the man with no plan. He gets up and walks away and has the hide to talk about our flawed policies.
In response to Mr Smyth—you mentioned a collective sigh. I have no doubt that there will be a collective sigh of relief. I could not even be bothered responding to his arrant nonsense. What I did speak about when I was here was the affordable housing action plan, released in 2007, which is moving into phase 2 and which will focus on homelessness as well as affordable accommodation for older Canberrans.
I and others have spoken about the OwnPlace initiative, which has seen a significant number of house and land packages costing under $300,000 being released to the market—the same plan that those opposite cannot get right and have accused local builders of having a price hike of $60,000 within. There is an affordable housing design competition.
I mentioned and others have spoken around land rent. Land rent is an innovative scheme. It is something that the Liberals oppose. They seem to oppose opportunities for Canberra’s families. There is a cliche of opposition for opposition’s sake, but when it involves denying opportunities to Canberra families it is really quite appalling.
Another thing I mentioned earlier was the entry cost of getting people into their own homes. I spoke about the stamp duty concession scheme. We spoke about the private rental initiative and community affordable housing. I also made mention of how the ACT government—this government; this active, working government—is working with the commonwealth on implementing the national rental affordability scheme, designed to deliver rental properties 20 per cent under current market rent.
Minister Barr spoke around this being an important area of public policy. He went on to say that many of us—and many of our families, our friends, our neighbours—have a dream of homeownership. That is what our affordable housing policy is about—as opposed to the Liberals, who seem to be trying to pull the rug out of innovative policies that will provide opportunities for our Canberra families.
The Minister for Planning went on to say that his approach to affordable ownership was around providing simpler, faster and more effective planning systems; he made mention of a significant number of dwellings that have been exempted from the need to lodge DAs and that the number will continue to rise over time. They are easier, simple, proactive approaches to ensure that our Canberra families are in housing of their choice—their choices, the opportunities that they seek out for themselves.
Another document tabled this week was the report on the implementation of the Canberra plan. If I can read—
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