Ross Cadell (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There has been a lot of debate today about housing. We've been talking about housing funding, purchase and demand. But what we're really talking about when we get to this is the relative advantage of different purchases, because we're only talking about one side of the housing equation, not supply. Acting Deputy President Hughes, you know that, when I first came down here and was looking for somewhere to stay, we got into a bidding war with each other on a property we didn't know we were bidding against each other on. That's what it gets down to on the purchase side. But let's talk about the supply side.

In this chamber, in state government chambers and in local government chambers around Australia, 'property developer' are evil words. People don't accept donations from them. They don't have meetings with them. But, if we are to get the supply side right, this country is dependent on those that develop properties, those that develop land, those that build housing. Until we get the supply side right, we will never get this housing problem right in Australia. We simply need to build more dwellings. We need to develop more land to put more people. That is the bottom line. And no government will be putting their money in this. It will be private investors. It will be mums and dads. It will be small businesses. It will be big investors and big property developers across Australia that do this. By not having them in the conversation, we do a disservice.

I do note that in New South Wales, the Premier, Chris Minns—he's a Labor premier; I'll give him his credit—is actually taking on some of these NIMBYs in some of the planning zones in the inner city on public ways, where there are transport lines and stuff like that. That is a good thing. But we need it to be bigger and better.

The independent planning assessments and councils everywhere are fearful of what will happen if they approve dwellings, land development and subdivisions, but they shouldn't be. What they are doing is depriving young families of houses. They are depriving mums and dads of getting a better house. They are depriving people of what we're trying to do here today—affordable housing. They are driving up the prices by not approving these things.

We can all take a laugh at Senator Faruqi here whenever anyone brings up the development at Port Macquarie. She created more dwellings for people. That is a good thing. I will meet with developers; I will talk to developers because they are the answer to this.

I asked my office to look through the Hunter at what might be around there that we hadn't seen, and they came to one called Kings Hill development of the urban release area. There are 3,500 lots just 50 kilometres from me in the Port Stephens Council area. That would allow 10,000 residents to move in, in the next 10 years. It's been held up for 12 years.

Let me talk about the funding aspects of this. It has received $1.5 million from the HAFF, which we approved going there. But they sent $660,000 in Commonwealth grants from a local housing plan to redo it, which has stopped it. They've put $1.5 million in to allow development to happen, but $660,000 of a local housing plan has taken it from 3,500 lots down to 700 lots, making it unviable. This is what we get—a developer that comes to a place, to correctly zoned land, and goes through the approval process for 3,500 lots. They do it right. They put in their money—they have so far put $50 million into this project to put these houses there—and it doesn't go ahead.

What is the cost? We still have to house people. We still have to put them somewhere. We just have to put them somewhere else because these people say, 'Not in my backyard.' So does Medowie get it? Does Wallalong get it? There's a claim we're going to infill some ex-housing commission places in Raymond Terrace. I know Raymond Terrace. The housing commission places were built cheaply. There is no drainage. There are no sump pits. So a developer is going to buy two or three lots, do a DA and see a bill for $150,000 or $200,000 or $300,000 for drainage and say, 'No, I can't do it.'

So we need to get more people involved in allowing these projects to happen. If things like Kings Hill don't go ahead, which has the local Worimi people's approval, which has the right zoning—3½ thousand homes. What will happen to the missile development zone and the aerospace centre in Williamtown that was announced the other day if we can't put people there? If you can't put people near their jobs, if you can't put people near growth, if you can't give people hope, anything we pass in this house about who funds it is just giving comparative advantage in a worse market. We are creating more costs for people by not opening up supply. We have to stop demonising the people that can help housing supply in Australia. We have to get them in the tent. We have to get people like Kings Hill development out there building houses so we can all have somewhere to live. (Time expired)