Louise Markus (Greenway, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As a proud and caring Australian, I am appalled at the treatment of rural landholders in the Riverstone and Marsden Park areas in my electorate. These people—and there are many of them, including around 600 who are on scheduled lands—live in my federal electorate of Greenway, the state electorate of Riverstone and the local government area of Blacktown. Blacktown has been described as being one of the fastest growing cities in Australia. Many people bought parcels of land, some of which is zoned rural (1a) and ordinary residential. These parcels of land have lot sizes averaging between 400 square metres and 800 square metres. They were bought on the basis that the land was scheduled for urban development soon. Twenty years later, these landholders realise that the land was really scheduled for heartache.

Much of this land is high and dry—prime building land—and has most of the necessary infrastructure, including: an electric railway link to the Sydney CBD which is earmarked for duplication; access to the new M7 tollway, which is only about 10 minutes drive away; and primary and senior schools and preschools, government and non-government. There already exist clubs, playing fields, service stations and shopping centres only minutes away. Indeed, there is a huge shopping and commercial centre under construction as we speak. Many lots have electricity and town water. Some include sewers or are not far from the board sewer mains. This is prime land, ready for release.

I am appalled because the majority of these people bought into their properties years ago on the understanding that the land would be rezoned and released for development. These people are ordinary mums and dads and families who bought within their means and who have hung onto their investment for many years just waiting for their hard work, sacrifice and patience to pay off. Now, the state government has stepped in and turned those dreams to nightmares in a number of ways. The first issue is one that strikes at the heart of housing affordability, and the Prime Minister and Treasurer alluded to this recently. State governments, in particular the New South Wales state government, are not releasing enough land. This has the effect of driving up cost because of the limited supply.

The Prime Minister said recently in parliament:

Between 1973 and 2003 housing affordability declined because over that period of time the cost of land rose by 700 per cent.

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The reason is that the cost of land has gone up astronomically because state governments will not release enough land for young homebuyers.

The Prime Minister is spot on. The New South Wales growth commission states that it costs a homebuyer on average $33,000 for infrastructure. This is on top of all other charges, levies and taxes.

I understand that the New South Wales government has released 26,000 lots of land to developers who are waiting for the New South Wales real estate market to pick up before they are prepared to onsell to homebuyers—this, while the battlers on scheduled lands and others who already own land and who are waiting to build are forced to rent, borrow more than would otherwise be necessary or simply squat on their own land. We have landholders who bought their properties with the expressed intention of selling into the residential market but they cannot. The state government and the local council have slapped on all kinds of state environmental policy plans, regional environmental policy plans and local environmental policy plans to the point where a lot of these landowners cannot sell, develop or use the land they are sitting on.

The expansion of the landscape and rural lifestyle zoning footprint and the green conservation zones are examples of how a state government can take control of land without having to buy it. Another subtle way the state government has punished rural landholders in Western Sydney is through the land tax valuations process conducted this year. This has left landholders paying huge council rates. Some have had an increase from 15 per cent and for others their council rates have increased by up to 300 per cent. One landholder has had his rates rise from $2,000 per year to $6,000 per year. In other words, a number of landholders in Riverstone, Schofields and Marsden Park are paying much higher rates, while other parts of my electorate are only paying 3.5 per cent. Is this equitable? I call on the New South Wales government to deliver on its promise to release land suitable for development, including the scheduled lands of Marsden Park, as it has done recently with the scheduled lands of Riverstone and Vineyard, and to give the battlers a fair go. I call on the New South Wales government to change its policy and guidelines on the 1:100,000-year flood policy. I call on Blacktown council to define ‘flood prone’ and to revert to the 1:100-year flood level and to make restrictions on development in flood-prone land. (Time expired)