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07-09-2007, 11:09 PM
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Defence braces for land audit
David Uren and Pia Akerman
10jul07
THE Defence Department is bracing for the results of a Treasury audit of land that could be released for residential development.
Releasing Defence Department landholdings in prime residential areas would be enough to meet more than half the annual national land supply. Sydney's Richmond air base and Canberra's Belconnen naval communications base are two sites analysts believe are ripe for redevelopment.
Peter Costello said at the weekend that Treasury would conduct an audit of land that could be made available to alleviate the problem of housing affordability.
The Treasurer said the audit would include commonwealth, state and private landholdings.
Defence is by far the largest commonwealth landowner.
Defence parliamentary secretary Peter Lindsay said there were already some defence land parcels on offer to state governments for residential redevelopment. These included land at Maribyrnong in Melbourne and Ingleburn in western Sydney.
"The federal Government does sell land to state governments for residential purposes. However, let's not pre-empt what will come out of the audit," Mr Lindsay said.
"I hope the states join the commonwealth in an audit of all available land."
Defence analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Studies Institute Mark Thomson said there was a strong logic for closing the Richmond air base and consolidating its operations in air bases at Williamtown at Newcastle, NSW, and Amberley near Ipswich in Queensland.
"Richmond has problems of noise encroachment and the accommodation facilities are below standard, but no one can ever bring themselves to mouth the words 'close it down'."
Richmond would be large enough for 5500 residential blocks. The naval station in Belconnen in Canberra could be subdivided into about 2500 residential blocks.
Slices of other defence properties, such as the Watsonia barracks in Melbourne, have already been sold for private development. However, Mr Thomson said the problem with selling off real estate such as the Holsworthy Barracks in Sydney was that it would force the army to house even more of its personnel in remote districts.
Housing Industry Association chief economist Harley Dale said increasing population growth meant there was a need for almost 170,000 new dwellings a year, compared with a recent construction rate of about 150,000. He said about two-thirds of new properties were detached houses, mostly on the suburban fringes, and required the development of 5500ha of new land a year.
He said the land shortage was most acute in Sydney and Perth. Land accounts for 63 per cent of the cost of a new home in Perth and 57 per cent in Sydney, but only 40 per cent in Melbourne.
Labor Treasury spokesman Wayne Swan said land audits had already been conducted, and both Treasury and the Productivity Commission had said additional land releases would have little effect on housing affordability.
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The brilliance of my political and economic leaders. In the sprawling urban city of Perth there are several rather centrally located Defence barracks. Irwin and Leeuwin being two that are crucial to the reserves. These barracks rest on prime real estate, should they be sold, the replacements would be built in the outer-suburbs. A predictable cost would be the loss of reserve servicemen who would not commute 60 minutes for 3 hours Tuesday night training.
Irwin barracks was recently targeted by a group of civilians as a site for a new sports stadium. No thought has been given to the impact upon the ADF if reserve units must relocate. At a time when op tempo is at an unusual high and the CA has stated his intent to deploy more reserves, I couldn't think of a more short-sighted set of proposals.
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Defence braces for land audit
David Uren and Pia Akerman
10jul07
THE Defence Department is bracing for the results of a Treasury audit of land that could be released for residential development.
Releasing Defence Department landholdings in prime residential areas would be enough to meet more than half the annual national land supply. Sydney's Richmond air base and Canberra's Belconnen naval communications base are two sites analysts believe are ripe for redevelopment.
Peter Costello said at the weekend that Treasury would conduct an audit of land that could be made available to alleviate the problem of housing affordability.
The Treasurer said the audit would include commonwealth, state and private landholdings.
Defence is by far the largest commonwealth landowner.
Defence parliamentary secretary Peter Lindsay said there were already some defence land parcels on offer to state governments for residential redevelopment. These included land at Maribyrnong in Melbourne and Ingleburn in western Sydney.
"The federal Government does sell land to state governments for residential purposes. However, let's not pre-empt what will come out of the audit," Mr Lindsay said.
"I hope the states join the commonwealth in an audit of all available land."
Defence analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Studies Institute Mark Thomson said there was a strong logic for closing the Richmond air base and consolidating its operations in air bases at Williamtown at Newcastle, NSW, and Amberley near Ipswich in Queensland.
"Richmond has problems of noise encroachment and the accommodation facilities are below standard, but no one can ever bring themselves to mouth the words 'close it down'."
Richmond would be large enough for 5500 residential blocks. The naval station in Belconnen in Canberra could be subdivided into about 2500 residential blocks.
Slices of other defence properties, such as the Watsonia barracks in Melbourne, have already been sold for private development. However, Mr Thomson said the problem with selling off real estate such as the Holsworthy Barracks in Sydney was that it would force the army to house even more of its personnel in remote districts.
Housing Industry Association chief economist Harley Dale said increasing population growth meant there was a need for almost 170,000 new dwellings a year, compared with a recent construction rate of about 150,000. He said about two-thirds of new properties were detached houses, mostly on the suburban fringes, and required the development of 5500ha of new land a year.
He said the land shortage was most acute in Sydney and Perth. Land accounts for 63 per cent of the cost of a new home in Perth and 57 per cent in Sydney, but only 40 per cent in Melbourne.
Labor Treasury spokesman Wayne Swan said land audits had already been conducted, and both Treasury and the Productivity Commission had said additional land releases would have little effect on housing affordability.
privacy (javascript:void(0)) terms (javascript:void(0)) © The Australian
The brilliance of my political and economic leaders. In the sprawling urban city of Perth there are several rather centrally located Defence barracks. Irwin and Leeuwin being two that are crucial to the reserves. These barracks rest on prime real estate, should they be sold, the replacements would be built in the outer-suburbs. A predictable cost would be the loss of reserve servicemen who would not commute 60 minutes for 3 hours Tuesday night training.
Irwin barracks was recently targeted by a group of civilians as a site for a new sports stadium. No thought has been given to the impact upon the ADF if reserve units must relocate. At a time when op tempo is at an unusual high and the CA has stated his intent to deploy more reserves, I couldn't think of a more short-sighted set of proposals.
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