Page 608 - Week 02 - Thursday, 20 February 2020

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Questions without notice

Land—sales

MR COE: My question is to the Minister for Housing and Suburban Development. Minister, how many blocks of land remain unsold at Throsby, noting that they are at about $1,100 a square metre?

MS BERRY: I have information on the number of blocks of land that are available. I will take the question on notice. I remember reading them just before I came to the chamber. I just cannot recall the actual figure. I will keep flicking through. I will take it on notice and respond before the end of question time.

MR COE: Minister, what modelling was done to determine the cost of land at $1,100 a square metre in Throsby and who did that modelling or valuation?

MS BERRY: The land pricing that occurs has been discussed a number of times in this place, but the cost of the blocks that are available for sale is based on market values. There are often two agencies involved, so if the question is about a particular block, I might need to get the details from Mr Coe so that I can find out which actual agencies were responsible for pricing that particular block for sale.

MR MILLIGAN: Minister, are new land releases in Gungahlin becoming unaffordable for low-income families and first home buyers?

MS BERRY: Blocks are available in a number of different price ranges to ensure that people can afford to purchase them at a lower rate. For example, there were 366 affordable housing dwellings released by the land agency, 61 public housing dwellings and 59 community housing dwellings. The government’s commitment to 15 per cent being available across all developments, including brown fields and green fields, is to ensure that people who are on lower incomes can afford to purchase homes of their own.

Transport—network 19

MS LE COUTEUR: My question is to the Minister for Transport and relates to the bus updates that have been announced and which will be in operation in April 2020. Minister, why is the R5 no longer going to run via Barton and Russell to Civic? How much difference will this make in terms of time to the travelling public?

MR STEEL: I thank Ms Le Couteur for her question. It is a good question because it is about one of the major changes that we are making in the network update in term 2 this year. We heard from the Tuggeranong community that it was taking too long to get from Tuggeranong on the R5 to the city, and that is why we have listened to feedback and we will be making changes to the R5 route to make it more direct. It will be travelling from Woden directly to Civic on the same route as the R4, without having to go through the Barton dogleg, which would go across Kings Avenue bridge and Constitution Avenue.


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