Ms FINOCCHIARO - 2012-10-24
Could you inform the parliament what impact the existing housing schemes are having on the Territory and the government’s budget position, and what alternatives are being considered?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Drysdale for her question. The simple answer to this question is that the impact of the previous government’s affordable housing schemes did two things: one was push the prices of housing up and forced many Territorians to leave. That is the simple answer to the question ...
Ms Lawrie: Not true.
Mr CHANDLER: It is true. There is no better measure of the failed scheme this previous government introduced than the fact they had to expand the parameters of that scheme because the prices of housing continued to go through the roof. This scheme was put in place to deal with affordable housing. No better measure exists than for our previous government to say, ‘We have to increase the parameters because the cost of housing has gone up’.
Yesterday in this House, I tabled a graph which indicates very clearly that the scheme the former government had did not increase the pool of housing in the Northern Territory, all it did was churn existing stock, and that stock continued to go up. This chart here shows - this green line is the purchase of established dwellings; down here, right at the very bottom, purchase of new dwellings. The blue line is construction of new dwellings
If you want to reduce the cost of living and make houses more affordable in the Northern Territory, this should be reversed. The previous government’s scheme, did nothing. All it has done is force more Territorians to leave.
Ms Lawrie: It is an inconvenient truth, is it?
Mr CHANDLER: The Opposition Leader will continually whine on about many of the processes we will introduce over the next few years.
What they will not recognise is that they lost the plot - and ‘lost the plot’ is probably a very good description because we need many more plots of land. The only way we will have cheaper housing is to have more land released on the market.
When you have businesses that talk to you on a daily basis that cannot afford ...
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! There were seven new suburbs.
Madam SPEAKER: Leader of the Opposition, please be seated.
Mr CHANDLER: Again, Madam Speaker, no point of order. The reality is no sooner does the previous government become the opposition it finds all these remarkable ways of solving problems and pointing fingers at us after eight weeks of being in government. Eight weeks, and they had 12 years to muck it up.
We will get this right and make housing more affordable in the Northern Territory.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Drysdale for her question. The simple answer to this question is that the impact of the previous government’s affordable housing schemes did two things: one was push the prices of housing up and forced many Territorians to leave. That is the simple answer to the question ...
Ms Lawrie: Not true.
Mr CHANDLER: It is true. There is no better measure of the failed scheme this previous government introduced than the fact they had to expand the parameters of that scheme because the prices of housing continued to go through the roof. This scheme was put in place to deal with affordable housing. No better measure exists than for our previous government to say, ‘We have to increase the parameters because the cost of housing has gone up’.
Yesterday in this House, I tabled a graph which indicates very clearly that the scheme the former government had did not increase the pool of housing in the Northern Territory, all it did was churn existing stock, and that stock continued to go up. This chart here shows - this green line is the purchase of established dwellings; down here, right at the very bottom, purchase of new dwellings. The blue line is construction of new dwellings
If you want to reduce the cost of living and make houses more affordable in the Northern Territory, this should be reversed. The previous government’s scheme, did nothing. All it has done is force more Territorians to leave.
Ms Lawrie: It is an inconvenient truth, is it?
Mr CHANDLER: The Opposition Leader will continually whine on about many of the processes we will introduce over the next few years.
What they will not recognise is that they lost the plot - and ‘lost the plot’ is probably a very good description because we need many more plots of land. The only way we will have cheaper housing is to have more land released on the market.
When you have businesses that talk to you on a daily basis that cannot afford ...
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! There were seven new suburbs.
Madam SPEAKER: Leader of the Opposition, please be seated.
Mr CHANDLER: Again, Madam Speaker, no point of order. The reality is no sooner does the previous government become the opposition it finds all these remarkable ways of solving problems and pointing fingers at us after eight weeks of being in government. Eight weeks, and they had 12 years to muck it up.
We will get this right and make housing more affordable in the Northern Territory.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016