Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Hansard source

We all know the Robert F. Kennedy quote: 'Some see the world as it is and say, "Why?" I see the world as it might be and say, "Why not?"' The abolition of all regulatory and legislative impositions upon land subdivisions would solve the problem of our housing costs, which the Treasurer in his first budget said were 'driving up affordability in Australia out of the reach of people'.

In Charters Towers, my home town, under the mining act you simply went into the clerk and said, 'Can I do the subdivision?' and he said yes or no. That was all; there were no regulatory impositions whatsoever. Caveat emptor, which has been the law in the British-speaking Western world for the last 600 to 800 years, says: you buy it, you check out whether it has the services on it. They might sign a document saying, 'I know that there's no water or electricity connected to this block,' but that is the only regulation that you need to do a subdivision. At the present moment it's taking four years at a cost of $150,000 or $200,000 to process— (Time expired)

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