Page 95 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 14 February 2012

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Taxation Administration (Amounts Payable—Eligibility—Pensioner Duty Concession Scheme) Determination 2011 (No 2)—Disallowable Instrument DI2011-312 (LR, 20 December 2011).

Taxation Administration (Amounts Payable—Thresholds—Home Buyer Concession Scheme) Determination 2011 (No 2)—Disallowable Instrument DI2011-315 (LR, 20 December 2011).

Taxation Administration (Amounts Payable—Thresholds—Pensioner Duty Concession Scheme) Determination 2011 (No 2)—Disallowable Instrument DI2011-313 (LR, 20 December 2011).

Work Health and Safety Act—

Attorney General (Fees) Amendment Determination 2011 (No 2)—Disallowable Instrument DI2011-332 (without explanatory statement) (LR, 22 December 2011).

Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011—Subordinate Law SL2011-36 (LR, 19 December 2011).

Housing—affordability

Discussion of matter of public importance

MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Mrs Dunne): Mr Speaker has received letters from Ms Bresnan, Mr Coe, Mr Doszpot, Mrs Dunne, Mr Hanson, Mr Hargreaves, Ms Hunter, Ms Le Couteur, Ms Porter, Mr Seselja and Mr Smyth proposing that matters of public importance be submitted to the Assembly. In accordance with standing order 79, Mr Speaker has determined that the matter proposed by Mr Doszpot be submitted to the Assembly, namely:

Affordable housing in the ACT.

MR DOSZPOT (Brindabella) (4.30): I welcome this opportunity to raise a matter of significant importance to every Canberran—the affordability of housing in the ACT. Whether you are a single person starting a new career and a new life in Canberra, a student coming to Canberra to undertake tertiary studies, a transferring bureaucrat or a teacher, newly married, a family or a retiree, the one uniting issue and major conversation starter is the cost and availability of housing in Canberra.

In a country that boasts major international centres such as Sydney and Melbourne, it is staggering to realise that Canberra’s cheapest housing is $100,000 more expensive than the cheapest homes in any other state or territory in Australia. Data provided by the real estate industry has shown the ever increasing cost of housing in our city. It is almost unbelievable that the average first home buyer or builder in Canberra now faces a bill of over $400,000. Over the past 11 years, house prices and land availability have been choked by a lack of planning, a hopeless inability to deliver infrastructure, high stamp duty costs and a government simply not capable of focusing on delivery.

In fact, the government are better known for their rhetoric than for their project management abilities. They are better known for the “build up” than the “building”. Labor’s failures are as broad as they are deep when it comes to managing the ACT


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