Bureaucrats told a budget estimates hearing on Tuesday the “ongoing” review had canvassed 4300 sites,of which 300 had progressed to a due diligence stage. Not all of those sites would be suitable for housing,they said,and none have been decided by the government.
Lands and Property Minister Stephen Kamper brushed off questions from the Liberal opposition about whether the government had projections for when the scheme might progress. “I can’t give you a date for when a house is going to be built,” he said. “This questioning is just unreasonable.”
Kamper was unable to answer several questions about the audit,including whether the recent transport-oriented development program and other housing reforms would affect the properties selected. “Minister,the answer is yes,” Planning Department deputy secretary Leon Walker said.
Asked whether he had made any recommendations to governance committees managing the audit about land that could be transferred,Kamper said he would take the question on notice. “Yes is the answer,” Walker assisted.
Opposition planning spokesman Scott Farlow said the hearing showed Kamper was “simply not across his brief” and the audit was a shambles. “We’re now nine months down the track,and the government has failed to identify a single parcel of land that could be developed for housing.”
However,the Liberal Party has been critical of many of the state government’s reforms to encourage housing supply,andaccuses it of privatising public land by planning to redevelop it for market housing. The government rejects the notion such development constitutes privatisation.