Striding the CSIRO Ginninderra site: Australian Institute of Architects Committee chair Rob Henry, ACT Shelter CEO Corinne Dobson, Greater Canberra Committee chair Adam Tadmore, ACT Senator David Pocock and Property Council ACT & Capital Region executive director Ashlee Berry. Photos: Ian Bushnell.
ACT Senator David Pocock and the housing sector have called on the Commonwealth and ACT governments to get the deal done on the sale of the 700-hectare CSIRO Ginninderra site to the Territory for desperately needed new housing.
The greenfield site on the Barton Highway has been on the table for a decade and an announcement has been close several times since the ACT wrote to Finance Minister Katy Gallagher and then Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic early last year.
Outside the site on Thursday, 22 May, Senator Pocock said the community needed to see an outcome with the site, which would be perfect for building affordable homes including much-needed social housing.
“We’ve seen at a federal and a territory level when there’s political will, things can happen very quickly,” Senator Pocock said.
“I’d expect this to happen faster than it has and we will continue to push, my colleagues federally and the ACT Government, to get on with it.”
He was joined by Property Council ACT & Capital Region executive director Ashlee Berry, ACT Shelter CEO Corinne Dobson, Australian Institute of Architects Committee chair Rob Henry and Greater Canberra Committee chair Adam Tadmore.
Senator Pocock said housing affordability continued to deteriorate and the nation was falling behind in its targets for new homes, including in the ACT where it was set to reach just 78 per cent of its share under the National Housing Accord.
He said the CSIRO Ginninderra site was a great location for social and affordable housing in a territory that desperately needed it.
“It’s government-owned land, so there is a way to actually make it affordable.”
He said this was where the ACT should be building housing, within the city’s footprint and not on the western edge or on farmland.
“It’s total madness that we have an ACT Labor Government that has an eye on suburbs on the western edge,” Senator Pocock said.
ACT Senator David Pocock: “We’ve seen at a federal and a territory level when there’s political will, things can happen very quickly.”
Ms Berry said there was a housing supply crisis and this site was ideal for developing a diverse range of housing, including social.
She said the cost of land was a major factor in affordability so the fact this was government owned offered an opportunity. But taxes and charges were also barriers.
“That could be addressed by the ACT Government and incentives to deliver more social and affordable housing across the board,” Ms Berry said.
Whether it was the Suburban Land Agency (SLA) developing it or the private sector, she said the best people needed to be found.
Mr Henry suggested a joint venture between the SLA and a private developer would work, and urged a precinct-based approach that would still have single houses but be focussed on the missing middle.
“We need more townhouses, we need more small community precincts through the site.”
He said a site as large as this leant itself to a masterplanning approach and offered a huge opportunity to do social housing differently, taking inspiration from the Scandinavian countries.
“The site here can be developed in a way that allows people to live adjacent to beautiful natural environments, as well as feel like they’re in an urban context,” he said.
Mr Henry said the site was perfect, sitting halfway between two town centres with lots of infrastructure around it.
“We’re running out of land and this is a prime opportunity to build communities and do them in a way that’s socially sustainable as well as environmentally sustainable.”
ACT Homes and New Suburbs Minister Yvette Berry welcomed Senator Pocock’s lobbying and said the land deal was an important project for the ACT.
She said it was a complex legal matter but the government felt an announcement was close.
“It is a significant piece of work. It’s certainly something we’ve never done before as a government, so we’re making sure that we get everything right, that we’re getting value for money,” Ms Berry said.
She said the site would require a lot of infrastructure and would come with environmental and heritage challenges.
“But I see it as something that can be really unique, embedding a really strong environmentally sustainable development that takes into account all of those challenges,” she said.
A spokesperson for Federal Science Minister Senator Tim Ayres said the land deal was a commercial matter for the CSIRO and ACT Government, and negotiations were still being finalised.
“The Federal Government is supportive of this proposal and is committed to building more homes, easing housing pressures and increasing the supply of social and affordable housing for all Australians,” he said.
