Canberra Liberals Leader Elizabeth Lee has welcomed today’s commitment from Senator Zed Seselja and the Federal Liberal National Government to prioritise the release of a large portion of the CSIRO Ginninderra site to address housing affordability in the ACT.

Ms Lee said there is a significant undersupply of family homes and medium density housing options in the ACT due to the Labor-Greens Government deliberately strangling the release of land.

“We know Canberrans want genuine choice when it comes to housing options, but the ACT Labor-Greens Government is not giving them that option,” Ms Lee said.

“There is a clear demand for blocks of land for stand-alone housing however the Labor-Greens Government’s land release strategy fails to meet the community’s needs and wants.

“Instead, Labor and the Greens are wedded to an infill agenda that does not have the broad support of the community who are crying out for more affordable housing options.

“It is great to see Senator Seselja pulling the levers he has available to provide more land for stand-alone dwellings for Canberrans that will help ease the housing crisis we are facing in the ACT.

“Based on average block size in Canberra the 243 hectares of land identified would provide an additional 2000 homes.

“To put this into the context the ACT Labor-Greens Government is planning on releasing a mere 4,171 blocks in the next five years.

“The ACT Labor-Greens Government have had more than 20 years to plan for the sustainable growth of our city, and they have failed,” Ms Lee concluded.