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It's a terrific pleasure to be here today with my colleague, the Chief Minister, Jon
Stanhope, with our candidate for Fraser, Andrew Leigh, with my good friend, Senator Kate Lundy,
making what is really a very important announcement for this local community.
I want to congratulate the ACT Land Development Agency and the ACT Government, especially
the Chief Minister, Jon Stanhope, for getting these two very important projects off the
ground.
These two projects will share in almost $10 million of Commonwealth funding and will cut
the price of nearly 1700 homes in Crace and Gungaderra West by between $15,000 and almost
$24,000 per home.
The first project that we're announcing is $7.6 million to fund the early construction
of a collector road and bus route, providing public transport services to the residents
of this development in Crace.
And those of you who are driving out here will understand how very important that public
transport link will be in the future.
By funding this new infrastructure the Federal Government's helping to bring forward the
supply of 1591 homes, including 248 affordable homes, by up to 14 months.
And having that - those homes hit the ground earlier is important for local residents who
are looking for a place to live.
It's also important in terms of affordability outcomes.
We've also added a benefit - the cost of new homes for buyers here at Crace will have about
a $15,000 savings on what they would otherwise have paid if they needed to pay for this infrastructure
themselves.
The second project I'm announcing today is $2.16 million for roads and services at Gungaderra
West, including pedestrian paving, drainage, gas reticulation, communications and soft
landscaping.
And that will save buyers of a hundred lots an average of $23,760 per lot.
The infrastructure funding will also facilitate the development of a further 75 homes that
will be retained by Community Housing Canberra, as community housing stock.
And it's great to see Community Housing Canberra here today as well.
Those two projects are very welcome news for Canberra home buyers.
It means that more residential lots will be brought to the market more quickly and that
those residential lots will include savings for home buyers.
So we're not only speeding up the development of this housing, we're reducing the cost.
There's a third Housing Affordability Fund project here in the ACT as well. Just to remind
people of that; under the first round of the program, the Federal Labor Government invested
three and a half million dollars in infrastructure at Bonner, including a water main.
That funding helped to fast track the release of 330 affordable house and land packages.
So with these three projects from the Housing Affordability Fund we've helped a significant
number of Canberra home buyers save on their new homes.
Also, in June this year, I announced that the ANU have been approved to deliver over
a thousand new affordable rental homes in Canberra under the National Rental Affordability
Scheme.
The first of these thousand homes will be made available to tenants within the next
few months, and other stages are expected to deliver units in January 2011 and January
2012 and June 2012.
About 80 per cent of those units will be studio apartments, with the remainder being a variety
of different sized units.
And that will be a big help for both students, but also other renters in Canberra, as pressure
is taken off the rental market in Canberra with the inclusion of those new properties.
When it comes to the construction of stimulus properties, we are also funding the construction
of nearly 380 new social housing dwellings in Canberra.
And in mid-July nearly 350 of those had commenced construction and 55 had already been completed.
And it's been terrific to be able to be with the Chief Minister and with my colleague,
Kate Lundy and with Andrew Leigh, moving people into those new homes and meeting the tenants
of those new properties.
It's a wonderful thing to see those new homes being tenanted.
I also want to congratulate the ACT Government on all of the efforts they've made in the
area of affordable housing and housing affordability.
It really is such a critical thing to the ordinary residents of Canberra and the ACT
to be able to rent or buy a house that they can afford to live in.
And by working together through this scheme, the Housing Affordability Fund will deliver
savings to new home buyers through the National Rental Affordability Scheme and our social
housing stimulus; we deliver more affordable rental properties.
Both those homes to buy and rent are critical to the secure future of Canberra residents.
So it's been terrific to work with you on these projects, Chief Minister, and congratulations
on the two that we're announcing today.
I think they'll make a great contribution to the lives of many Canberra residents.
Thanks.