2021-05-05
Greens housing spokesperson, Jenny Leong MP, has condemned the headline initiative announced with the release of the NSW Housing Strategy today as a dream for property developers and a nightmare for people living with the reality of housing insecurity and housing stress.
“This is supposed to be a long-term strategy with solutions, not yet another way to gift public land to developers. Developers and big business will be able to scroll through a database of public land to see what they can make profit off by developing,” Ms Leong said.
“This is taking outsourcing to a whole new level - it seems the Minister is now outsourcing her own responsibility to invest in housing and come up with ideas for solving the crisis, and is inviting developers to do it for her.
“Imagine how it would feel having your home put online for developers to pitch bids for while you were living there?
“It is an absolute disgrace that the Land and Housing Corporation have no government funding to provide public housing, so their only revenue stream is to privatise public land. We need a commitment that any proposals considered for publicly owned land will deliver 100% public and social housing.
“We’ve always known that property developers have dominated government decisions but to see a so-called housing strategy that actually puts their interests in wanting to develop public land ahead of the communities need for housing isn’t a strategy it’s a sham.
“You don’t solve the housing crisis by creating a database. You solve it by investing in and creating new homes, by implementing rental reforms, and by pushing the Federal Government to stop excessive tax breaks that mean that housing has become an investment tool for profit rather than primarily a place where people live,” Ms Leong said.
Greens Planning spokesperson, Jamie Parker said: “This strategy is a recipe for overdevelopment and ever increasing density.
“The flow-on costs to communities will be huge. Local schools, parks and other public spaces will all be up for grabs, adding to our already massive community infrastructure backlog. Instead of gifting developers our public land, we should be making them contribute their fair share to help meet the needs of our communities.
“This is clearly a pitch from the Government directly to developers. It’s not a strategy, it’s a real estate deal,” Mr Parker said.