I am hoping that the ludicrious changes to national park laws being touted by Frank sartor get overturned when the Liberal party comes to power in NSW????

Over the past fifteen years Sydney has earned the unwanted reputation as Australia’s least affordable city, a place that many families and young people find too expensive to live in.

People living in Sydney are creative, industrious and resourceful, however they are working harder just to keep their heads above water.

The biggest driver of Sydney’s growing cost of living is the cost of homes. Sydney homebuyers make higher mortgage repayments as a share of disposable income than any other state.^[1] Only 64 per cent of Sydney households own their home, less than every other Australian capital city except Darwin.^[2]

The NSW Liberals & Nationals want home ownership to be more than a ‘dream’. We want to make it easier for individuals and families to get into the Sydney housing market and reduce the pressure on household budgets from mortgage costs. We want to tackle Sydney’s housing stress head on.

In government, the NSW Liberals & Nationals will introduce a range of practical measures to make housing more affordable.

Our $630 million Action Plan to Make Sydney Liveable Again includes:

• Repealing NSW Labor’s $429 million ‘Homebuyers Tax’ on property purchases;
• Providing a Regional Relocation Grant of $7000 to encourage ‘whole of NSW’ growth;
• Extending stamp duty concessions to Empty Nesters who are over 55 years old, who choose to move from a house to a smaller dwelling; and
• Accelerating land release and reducing infrastructure costs on new developments.

Our Action Plan to Make Sydney Liveable Again will stimulate construction, facilitate better utilisation of housing stock and encourage regional development.

Over the next 4 years our plan will support 40,000 households to relocate from Sydney to regional NSW.

These initiatives will reduce the population pressure on Sydney and provide real economic benefits to regional NSW.

A $630 million Action Plan to Make Sydney Liveable Again

A Liberals & Nationals Government will introduce practical measures to kick-start the housing market.  Our Action Plan to Make Sydney Liveable Again includes:

• Repealing NSW Labor’s $429 million ‘Homebuyers Tax’ on property purchases;
• Providing a Regional Relocation Grant of $7,000 to encourage ‘whole of NSW’ growth;
• Extending stamp duty concessions to Empty Nesters who are over 55 years old, who choose to move from a house to a smaller dwelling; and
• Accelerating land release and reducing infrastructure costs on new developments.

1.    Repealing NSW Labor’s $429 million Homebuyers Tax on property purchases

The NSW Liberals & Nationals believe that additional property taxes cruel the construction industry at a time when people and the economy can least afford it.

In May, under the cover of a Federal Budget, NSW Labor announced that it would introduce a new property tax.

The new tax, which replaced the Property Transfer Fee, will collect an estimated $429 million per annum additional revenue for the NSW Government. It was introduced despite the fact that the average homebuyer in Sydney already pays the most stamp duty of any State capital:^[3]

The new tax will have a significant impact across many suburbs in Sydney and regional NSW. According to the Property Council of Australia,^[4] the new tax will affect:

• 46% of properties sold in Strathfield;
• 85% of the properties sold in Balmain;
• 84% of properties sold in Drummoyne;
• 79% of properties sold in Coogee; and
• 35% of properties sold in Kiama.

While the new tax will hit many established homes, it will have a twofold effect on new housing development.

Housing development companies will pay the new tax when purchasing vacant land for development, and once again when final properties are sold.

This means that all buyers of new homes will pay the new tax at least once, and for home and land packages worth more than $500,000, they will pay the tax twice.

2.    A Regional Relocation Grant

Sydney faces massive population growth over the next 30 years. This will mean greater congestion on roads and public transport and pressure on house prices.

The NSW Liberals & Nationals are committed to ‘whole of state’ infrastructure and development and believe there are many great opportunities for people outside the Sydney basin.

We believe that the challenges and opportunities of population growth should be shared across the State, not concentrated in Sydney.

In government, the NSW Liberals & Nationals will introduce a $7000 Relocation Grant for people who sell their property in Sydney and relocate to regional NSW.

The program will be limited to 10,000 grants per annum.

To be eligible for the grant, a family must sell their house or unit in the Sydney region and buy a house or unit outside Sydney. The value of the purchased property must be less than $600,000 and must be the principal place of residence.

The NSW Liberals & Nationals will work in consultation with local government and the community to define the geographic boundaries of ‘Sydney’ and ‘Regional NSW’. Local councils who are currently concerned about local population pressures will have the choice of opting out of the scheme.

Current projections are that over the next 25 years Sydney’s population will grow by 1.5 million and the population of NSW outside of Sydney will grow by 470,000[5].

Despite having 63% of the State’s population, Sydney is expected to accept 76% of population growth. At the same time, the population in Northern and North Western NSW will fall over the next 30 years.

We believe that NSW does not begin and end with Sydney and we understand that one of the answers to managing population pressures is to encourage whole of state growth.

The Regional Relocation Grant will reduce the transaction costs in moving, such as stamp duty. The Henry Tax Review (2010) cited stamp duties as a deterrent to relocating home:

“Stamp duty is triggered by the sale of a property. This creates the possibility for people to avoid stamp duties by choosing not to buy or sell property, which can result in people not living in the house they really want to live in or staying too long in a house that could be better used by somebody else. This probably results in a poor allocation of the housing stock.”[6]

3.    Extend the Empty Nester Transfer Duty Concession to over 55’s

The NSW Liberals & Nationals believe that seniors who choose to move from larger houses to smaller dwellings should be rewarded.  However, existing Budget measures exclude a larger number of people in the 55 – 65 year old age bracket, who are at a stage of life when downsizing is under consideration.

At age 55, many people are planning for retirement and related changes in lifestyle and home location.  Current measures ignore this important group of people and the opportunity to assist them at a very relevant time in their decision-making.

The NSW Liberals & Nationals will extend current transfer duty concession measures which currently apply to over 65s, to include people over 55.  Indiciduals over 55 years selling an existing property and buying a newly constructed home costing up to $600,000 will pay zero transfer duty.  The exemption will apply to sales between 1 July 2011 and 30 June 2012.

Downsizing benefits many seniors allowing them to move to properties that better meet their needs and are more manageable.  Downsizing also benefits families looking to get into the housing market or needing to move to a bigger property by freeing up larger houses and reducing price pressure.

According to a study by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) there are 854,000 properties in NSW with one or more person aged over 55 living in them^[7].  Of these properties close to one third have one spare bedroom and more than half have two or more spare bedrooms.

4.    Accelerating land release and reducing infrastructure costs on new developments.

One of the key drivers of Sydney’s housing stress is the lack of supply. The NSW Liberals & Nationals will accelerate land release and help reduce costs of home ownership by publishing annual ‘real time’ new dwelling targets for Sydney, the Hunter and Illawarra. They will form a benchmark for performance in the planning system and allow local communities and their representatives’ access to more information to join in debate on housing issues, before decisions are made.

In government, the NSW Liberals & Nationals will also make infrastructure costs contestable by making the formulation of government levies transparent, and considering any other proposals that offer better ways of delivering infrastructure that maintains or exceeds appropriate standards.

Sydney’s Housing Squeeze

Housing affordability has become the number one issue facing young Sydney families and individuals.

Sydney homebuyers make higher mortgage repayments as a share of disposable income than any other state.[8] Only 64 per cent of Sydney households own their home. This is less than every other Australian capital city except Darwin.[9]

Homebuyers in Sydney face the highest costs in the nation, with the median price in 2009 at $544,000, compared with Melbourne at $441,900 and in Brisbane at $419,000.[10]

A key driver of Sydney’s housing affordability crisis is the fall in new home construction rates.  2009 was NSW’s worst year for new home construction in statistical history. In contrast it was Victoria’s best year since 2002.[11] In 2009, 25,000 houses and units were approved in NSW, compared to 45,000 in Victoria.[12]

A strong driver of increasing house prices is the impact of taxes and charges. NSW levies range from $33,000 to $36,000 a home lot, about 50 percent higher than the Queensland average[13].

Costings

The cost of the NSW Liberals & Nationals Action Plan to Make Sydney Liveable Again is $630 million over four years. This includes additional taxation revenue resulting from additional housing demand induced from this policy.

 

The NSW Liberals & Nationals will release independently verified policy costings prior to the NSW State Election.

NSW Shadow Treasurer, Mike Baird on Budget Day 2010

In the last 5 months, 7 dept of housing commission high intensity dwellings are being built within a 1km radius of our home in Narwee. Narwee and Riverwood are already high density Dept of Housing areas.

Most free standing homes are now being demolished and replaced by high density housing commissions. Some of these are in already very congested streets and avenues. Most have been built outside of local planning requirements.

The local residents concerns to these developments, many very legitimate including safety issues, have been ignored during the planning process by Labor Local and State ministers (and their "independent approval process"). These developments have been fast-tracked. All the residents in our local electorate are very annoyed at the way we have been treated by those that are supposed to be "serving our community". I am very sure this would not be happening in their street. (Ie, Mr Borger, Mr Greene, Mrs Keneally, Mr Furolo, etc).

The 2011 election will be my first state election to vote in and I intend to make that vote count. At the moment I will be voting for an O'Farrell Coalition government. The current Labor government is flaccid and completely devoid of any ideas or charisma. I just hope that the people of NSW see through the shallow exterior of Keneally and see the Sartors, Tripodis, Orkopolous's etc.

The NSW Environmental Planning and Assessment Act was came into force more than 30 years ago.[1]

Since then it has become dysfunctional.  The system does not provide the certainty that communities deserve, and our economy needs. Most other Australian states have modernised their planning laws while ours have stagnated.

In recent years more and more approvals have been taken out of community view and decided by politicians – a recipe for collapse of public confidence in the system, and a blow to our reputation as a good place to invest.

The NSW Liberal & National Parties are committed to returning local planning powers to local communities (through their councils). We believe that local residents – through councils – are best placed to make local planning decisions affecting their suburbs. After all, it is local residents – not Macquarie Street planners – who have to live with the results of these planning decisions.

We will scrap ‘Part 3A’ – one of the wide-ranging powers NSW Labor has given its Planning Minister to override local communities, and a factor that ICAC noted had contributed to corruption risks in the planning process.

The NSW Liberals & Nationals will commence an overhaul of the planning system soon after March 2011. 

We will remove the politics from planning decisions.  Our review will:

• - ensure our planning system centres on merit and the public interest, and re-empowers local communities on local planning issues;
• - create a system that enjoys public support – with a state government that respects people;
• - create a system that is modern, takes into account sustainability, gives certainty to investors and makes NSW competitive again, including a reserve power for genuinely state significant developments;

• - deliver certainty about planning rules and decision making processes that are made transparently and in a timely way; and

The review will be conducted by an independent expert panel, with the aim of enacting legislation around the middle of our first term.

The NSW Liberals & Nationals have faith in local communities, and believe they should be involved in making the decisions that affect their area and future.

In government we will empower local communities by giving them better information and genuine data about local health services, and let them have a real say in the public health system that is there to serve them.

We will decentralise clinical decision-making, support the role of medical practitioners, nurses, and other health care professionals, empower hospital managers and provide a structure for significant community involvement.

As detailed in the NSW Liberals & Nationals ‘Making It Work’ health policy, we will:

• - replace Labor’s huge and out-of-touch Area Health Services with smaller Health Districts;
• - appoint Boards to the Health Districts and make them accountable to the communities they serve;
• - restore the decision-making power of Hospital General Managers and give authority back to expert clinicians;
• - further develop clinical networks that link medical experts across the system;
• - appoint a qualified medical practitioner as Executive Clinical Director in each Health District; and
• -  publish information about health service management including Budget allocations, the capacity of an institution to undertake treatments and patient care outcomes through an independent Information Bureau.

There is consensus between most health stakeholders, including the Federal Government, that the NSW health system needs a flatter and more locally focused management structure that better utilises the expertise of medical practitioners, nurses and other health care professionals.

Only a NSW Liberals & Nationals Government will restore confidence in the public health system, re-engaging medical practitioners and once again give local communities a strong and direct voice in local patient care.

Kristina Keneally and NSW Labor’s plan to force people out of their homes to allow properties to be seized and sold to developers will be strongly opposed by the NSW Liberals & Nationals, NSW Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell and Shadow Minister for Planning Brad Hazzard said today.

Shadow Minister for Transport Gladys Berejiklian said today Kristina Keneally’s lousy excuse as to why private bus commuters will have to have their tickets stamped under Labor’s MyZone ticketing system has exposed yet another delay to the delivery of integrated ticketing for Sydney.

“David Campbell’s promise that contracts to deliver integrated ticketing would be signed by the end of this month have been rubbished by Kristina Keneally, who today admitted T-card will not be finalised until later this year,” Ms Berejiklian said.