Page 109 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 14 February 2012
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
The situation Mr Barr is so sensitive about is that he was out there yesterday saying it is all the commonwealth’s fault. Yet we know that he voted for a motion, with the Greens, that invited them, encouraged them, to come in. We are seeing delays in Throsby. We are seeing delays for the Catholic high school. We are seeing less housing, potentially, down in Throsby as a result of this. Any attempt to pretend otherwise is absurd. He complains about commonwealth intervention when it was his government that actually failed in their due diligence in Molonglo and, lo and behold, discovered there was an asbestos dump there that they did not know about, apparently.
I will criticise the commonwealth government and the commonwealth environment department as is their due. But I do not think it is their fault that the ACT government did not do their due diligence and suddenly discovered an asbestos dump that everyone knew had been there but had no idea about the extent of it.
Of course it comes back to planning. I remember asking questions of the current planning minister when he was previously planning minister, before Mr Barr was planning minister. I remember asking questions of Mr Corbell about Molonglo in 2005, and we were assured that the work was being done and that it was all happening. We have waited years and years and years, because this government did not get their act together. The hollowness of the defence is clear: they seem to blame everyone but themselves.
Let us conclude with the facts. The facts are that this government have been there for over a decade. The fact is that they control land release. The fact is that they can plan ahead, because we have known for decades that these suburbs would be developed. The fact is that they control the planning system, they control the regulation of housing and they control taxation in this area—and they have created a two-class Canberra. In Andrew Barr’s words, they have created a bunch of second-class citizens who, in the Labor Party’s view of the world, are not worthy of owning a home.
We disagree with them. We believe that all Canberrans should have the opportunity to aspire to own their own home, and there should be policies that help them get there. (Time expired.)
MS BURCH (Brindabella—Minister for Community Services, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Women and Minister for Gaming and Racing) (5.19): I welcome the opportunity to discuss the importance of affordable housing here in the ACT. Housing affordability is a challenge faced by all Australian governments, and this government has given considerable attention to addressing the complex issues of housing affordability in the territory, beginning with the release of the first phase of the affordable housing action plan back in 2007.
This plan put forward no fewer than 63 separate initiatives aimed at a range of underlying factors impacting on housing affordability. It placed a strong emphasis on reforming the process of land release, but also recognises that affordable housing is a complex matter which extends beyond purely focusing on market forces.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video