Government Land Releases
Reverend the Hon. Dr GORDON MOYES: I ask the Treasurer, and Minister for State Development a question without notice. Is it a fact that Sydney developers will be forced to pay a $15,000 levy on newly released blocks of land to help fund roads and infrastructure? Is it a fact that this levy will primarily target young families which, in general, are struggling to afford a block of land and home in outer Sydney suburbs such as Camden and Kellyville? Will the Treasurer explain why the State Government intends to burden young struggling families with this additional tax, rather than spread the cost across the broader community, which can help share the burden of funding roads and public transport? How much is paid to the State Government from land purchases in the form of surcharges, sales tax, stamp duties, et cetera, per every $100,000?
The Hon. MICHAEL EGAN: I will refer the question of Reverend the Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes to the Minister for Planning for a detailed response. Suffice it to say the infrastructure costs associated with the release of urban land are substantial. In decades gone by it was virtually the practice of governments to enable land to be developed for housing without any infrastructure being provided. Indeed, some areas in Sydney that have been well established for 40 or 50 years still require some of the infrastructure which these days would be regarded as basic and essential, such as public transport. Certainly, I remember that in the 1950s and 1960s young home buyers moved to the area in which I lived in Sutherland shire to build their homes; in those days there were no tarred roads, no permanent gutterings and no sewerage but there was water and electricity. I remember that when my family moved from Coogee to the Sutherland shire in 1954 there was no street lighting in the major shopping centres in Sutherland.
In those days when young couples bought their block of land the first thing they did was clear it of every blade of anything that looked remotely green; they would then build a garage and live in the garage as they built their house stick by stick, brick by brick, depending on how much they could afford every weekend on their visit to the local hardware shop or local timber merchant. Generally, even if they were flush with money after working a lot of overtime during the fortnight, what they bought depended on whether they had a car to carry their purchases home from the hardware shop or the timber merchant.
The Hon. Duncan Gay: You sound more and more like John Howard.
The Hon. MICHAEL EGAN: I am not as old as John Howard. There are a lot of things that John Howard and I do not have in common. We come from entirely different backgrounds.
The Hon. Michael Gallacher: Yes, he comes from a working-class background.
The Hon. MICHAEL EGAN: No, he does not, in fact. I do not want to get into any sort of class warfare, but let me assure honourable members that John Howard does not come from what I regard as a working-class background. I do not want to cast any aspersions on John Howard, although once upon a time I might have done. However, I have become much more tolerant.
The Hon. Tony Kelly: You’re an elder statesman now.
The Hon. MICHAEL EGAN: I am an elder statesman now. I believe in cultural diversity, and as far as I am concerned John Howard comes into that category of cultural diversity. We have very little in common. I assure Reverend the Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes that the Government is doing what it can to ensure an availability of residential land so that the price of blocks of land does not go through the roof any more, unfortunately, than they have during my lifetime. I remember that in my first election pamphlet in 1971 I complained about the price of land. The pamphlet had a photograph of me with two young home buyers under the caption, “What? $7,000 for that?” That particular block of land would probably cost about $700,000 today. I only regret that perhaps rather than financing my 1971 State election campaign I did not put the proceeds into buying the $7,000 block of land.
