The NSW Opposition has renewed calls for the Minns Labor Government to work with Federal Labor and Anthony Albanese to reduce the state’s record high immigration rates in order to alleviate pressure on the housing market in the coming years.
Leader of the Opposition Mark Speakman said the Government has made a series of announcements to address Sydney’s housing supply, but very little new housing stock will be delivered in this term of government, and some of the projects have a timeframe of up to 10-15 years.
“Chris Minns continues to ignore one of the biggest contributing factors to our housing supply shortage, which is unsustainable rates of immigration. His announcements will have no short term impact on rental stress and high house prices,” Mr Speakman said.
“Once again, I repeat my offer to work with Chris Minns on the need to push for a better targeted and more sustainable immigration program for NSW. This will help to take the pressure off renters and help improve access to home ownership in the medium term.”
New South Wales is expected to receive more than its population share of Australia’s net overseas migrants over the coming years. Net overseas migration will contribute almost 500,000 people to the State’s total expected population growth of 580,000 in the five years to 2026-27.
The Opposition has also raised a number of questions regarding today’s announcement of an MOU with the Australian Turf Club.
“Chris Minns isn’t able to provide any detail on the cost of this proposal, timeframes for the delivery of the 25,000 houses or when the project will get underway,” Mr Speakman said.
“We now know the Government intends on including a new Sydney Metro West station at Rosehill, but this is at least eight years away – what does that mean for the delivery of these 25,000 new homes and their connectivity to Sydney and Parramatta?”
Shadow Minister for Planning, Public Spaces and Housing Scott Farlow warned that the Government’s plans risk undermining efforts currently underway by local governments to increase housing supply.
“Many local councils along transport corridors are undertaking work to increase density and increasing housing supply. The risk here is that the Minns Labor Government comes in over the top and takes these plans back to the drawing board,” Mr Farlow said.
“Seven of the eight tier 1 sites are already captured by planning as priority growth areas and precincts with extensive planning already underway and the other, Hornsby, adopted a town centre masterplan delivering 4,900 new dwellings and facilitating 4,500 jobs only last week.”
“The Government needs to explain how their affordable housing requirements will be applied to existing projects in the pipeline and how their plans will take into consideration heritage constraints as nearly half the stations in Sydney they have selected are impacted by heritage conservation.”
“Delays to the Sydney Metro will mean a gap between housing and infrastructure delivery in The Bays Precinct and North Strathfield Metro.”
“The Government still hasn’t provided detail of their ‘snap rezoning’ around 31 train stations – Chris Minns is very good at delivering headlines but poor on detail and how these plans will deliver additional housing.”
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