The ACT Greens have today called for Molonglo to be a genuine model of sustainability with low water and energy use, and clever design innovations that will make it an easy and pleasant place for Canberrans to live.

The Greens Parliamentary team today launched a discussion paper on the planned Molonglo urban district for the Canberra community to debate and provide feedback

“The Molonglo development will become home to 55,000 Canberrans.  We need to take on new design and planning innovations to build an urban village for the 21st century that is low on water and energy use,” Greens Parliamentary Convenor, Meredith Hunter, said today.

“This is an important development that requires a whole of Government commitment to make sure we get the best outcomes for the Canberra community.

“But most importantly, we would like to bring the people of Canberra and their interests, knowledge and expertise into the discussion.”

The paper outlines 11 design and planning issues that address high sustainability, including water and energy use, transport options, design that promotes healthy communities and ongoing protection of our natural areas.

“It is time for us to move towards building zero emissions neighbourhoods,” Greens Environment spokesperson, Shane Rattenbury said.

“We must face up to being the largest inland city on the driest continent on earth.  Water sensitive design and non-potable water use is the only way to sustainably support this growth in the region’s population.”

“Protecting the biodiversity of the Molonglo river corridor is a priority and something we know that future residents will value. A chain of ponds is a far better option than building a dam,” Mr Rattenbury said.

“It’s often said that Canberra is a ‘car city’.  Building Molonglo from scratch gives us a chance to have fast and frequent public transport, on dedicated routes that will provide a very attractive alternative to the private vehicle,” Greens Transport spokesperson Amanda Bresnan said.

“Let’s not make the mistake of trying to add public transport only when demand grows.  It needs to be there from the very beginning to nurture a culture of public transport use.”

Greens Planning spokesperson, Caroline Le Couteur, said that Molonglo could become Canberra’s most truly affordable area.

“Our vision for Molonglo is for a place where housing is well designed so that heating and cooling costs are low, there is local employment, people live close to schools and shops, and there are good bus and bike transport links to the rest of Canberra.

“Molonglo should cost less to live in because it is well designed and these savings will help housing affordability.  In turn, savings in resource use mean that Molonglo will has less environmental impact.

“The Molonglo development has the potential to be a turning point for the ACT and Australia as we design and plan for a world where we need to account carefully for our energy and water use.

“This discussion paper presents ideas to the people of Canberra about an affordable and sustainable way to build and live that we can be proud of,” Ms Le Couteur said.

The Greens will consult on the discussion paper over the next two months, holding a public forum at the Assembly and engaging with community organisations and other stakeholders.

Please click here to view the discussion paper

Submissions will be received until 9/04/10 – send to: LeCouteur@parliament.act.gov.au

The ACT Greens have called for a comprehensive examination of housing affordability options in the ACT.

“Housing affordability is not just about the supply of new land, there are issues of the type of housing and what we’re doing with our current stock,” Greens planning spokesperson, Caroline Le Couteur MLA, said today.

“The Government’s silver bullet of a big land release announced today has been seen before, and yet we find ourselves in the same situation.

“As well as land releases we should be looking at offering a wider range of accommodation options, to suit the needs of younger, single people without private transport – not just looking at accommodation for families.

“I would like to see the Government work on more innovative housing solutions such as terrace housing, more varied aged care, student housing or smaller secondary dwellings such as granny flats. This is one way to better utilise our existing housing stock.

“Australia is now building the largest new homes in the world. Bigger houses cost more to build and more to run.”

Recent Comsec data shows our new homes are an average size of 214.6 m2. In contrast, new homes in the United States (which used to be the biggest in the world) average 201 m2 while the United Kingdom average only 76 m2.

“These large houses are generally built on Greenfield sites which tend to have poor services such as no buses, schools or shops when they are built.

“The Government should also be ensuring a high level of energy efficiency, proper solar orientation, and providing public transport from the outset.

“It’s crucial that the ACT gets our new housing developments right, particularly in the Molonglo Valley, in order to ensure ongoing affordability as well as meeting our greenhouse gas targets,” said Ms Le Couteur.

ACT Greens Housing Spokesperson, Amanda Bresnan MLA will seek Assembly support this week for the ACT Government to redevelop the Currong Apartments in Braddon for best practice sustainable living.

“I am calling on the Government to run a design competition for an environmentally sustainable social housing neighbourhood on the Currong site.” Ms Bresnan said today.

“It’s time our public buildings offered the lead in terms of innovative and worthwhile architecture rather than following in the footsteps of commercial housing developments in the ACT.”

“The ACT Government has been unable to sell the Currong Apartments, so we should take this as an opportunity to do something important with that site.”

“One way to unearth innovative solutions is to run design competitions, as the Victorian Office of Housing and the Royal Australian Institute of Architects did in 2001. The resulting K2 Apartments in Melbourne are now home to 150 people living in 96 units, around half of which are designed for people with a disability. These award-winning units use less than half the usual energy and water, incorporating solar power and hot water, good air circulation, attractive low-water gardens, and are made from low emission materials.”

“There are many other examples around the world. The BEDZED development in London is a mix of public and shared equity homes. It generates its own power, is wonderfully innovative in how it uses energy and water, and is home to a diverse, proud and engaged community of residents.”

“The sad thing for Canberra is that there are not yet any adventurous worthwhile developments like that here. But the Currong site, already owned by Housing ACT and close to the city and services, is the perfect place to build something special. A properly constructed design competition will show us all what is possible in terms of environmental, social and economic sustainability. It’s much more than we are used to.” Ms Bresnan said.

ACT Greens Planning Spokesperson, Caroline Le Couteur MLA today announced that the Greens will support the Government’s Planning Regulation to expedite the approval process for Federal Stimulus Package social housing projects.

“The ACT Greens welcome this immediate and substantial investment in much-needed social housing across Canberra.” Ms Le Couteur said today.

“But we are concerned that existing ACT planning processes have been compromised due to the Rudd Government’s haste to get building started.”

“This rushed timeframe suggests that this Stimulus Package is also a Rudd Government re-election package. That explains why most of the housing has to be completed by the end of next year.”

“It is particularly troubling that the package is structured so that a delay in any component can put other components at risk.”

“The Rudd government is holding the states and territories over a barrel by imposing restrictive timelines, with the result that third party appeal rights will not apply to any of these projects.”

“The Greens proposed a more streamlined objection process to the ACT Government earlier in the year, but not enough progress was made on that proposal and – to be blunt – we have now run out of time.”

“This social housing investment is a vital one off opportunity which we can’t afford to put at risk.”

Neighbours of proposed developments will still be notified of the proposal and will be able to comment as normal. However they will not be able to appeal ACTPLA’s decision in the Administrative Civil Appeals Tribunal.

“We have ensured ACTPLA’s internal review panel will include an external social planner to provide better oversight of the potential physical and social impact of these developments.” Ms Le Couteur said.

“All developments will still have to conform to the Territory Plan. At the end of the day, it is the ACT government which will be held to account in regards to the quality of these developments.”

Amanda Bresnan MLA, ACT Greens Housing Spokesperson, has pointed to new housing figures published in the Canberra Times today as evidence of the need to grow the supply of social housing in the ACT.

“What this information from Housing ACT shows is:

• that people remain stuck in crisis accommodation for too long,

• that the Housing ACT ‘high needs’ category is almost a ‘holding pen’ for people waiting to get onto the ‘priority’ list,

• that we do need more public and community housing in Canberra, and

• that we should be looking at ways to address the lack of affordable rental properties.” Ms Bresnan said today.

“In the past twenty years the whole idea of public housing has changed from being something that was available across our community to being limited to the very poor with high and complex needs.”

“I appreciate what a difficult job Housing ACT has in managing the demand for housing, and that the Federal housing stimulus funding will have an impact.”

“However, it’s time we started to undo some of those changes in the interest of making public housing itself socially and financially sustainable, and to provide an effective buffer to the low cost private rental market which, by looking at the current waiting lists, is clearly not meeting people’s needs.”

“That is why increasing the supply of public and affordable housing is such a big part of our agenda in the Assembly.” Ms Bresnan said.

ACT Greens Housing spokesperson, Amanda Bresnan MLA has called on the ACT Government to make more temporary shelter available to people who are homeless over winter.

“I am concerned by reports that the number of people in Canberra who are homeless is on the rise due to the global recession” Ms Bresnan said.

“It looks like there will be an increase in the number of people with nowhere to stay over winter because our refuges are full.”

“While the Commonwealth Government has put millions of dollars on the table to address the needs of homeless people, those homes will not start to become available for some time.”

“The ACT Government needs to come out with a plan now to assist the growing number of people who are homeless to get through this winter.”

“It could consider running a program over winter that is similar to its Christmas program, which frees up emergency accommodation over Christmas to women and children who are victims of domestic violence, and make some Housing ACT properties available in the short term prior to their refurbishment or sale” Ms Bresnan said today.

ACT Greens Planning spokesperson Caroline Le Couteur MLA gained unanimous support in the Assembly yesterday for her motion to improve the energy efficiency ratings auditing regime.

“Since I tabled the motion last week, there has been a lot of discussion with the Government on what concrete actions can be taken to improve energy efficiency ratings of houses, both new and for sale,” Ms Le Couteur said today.

“We now have a clear commitment from Government to:

• Immediately strengthen the auditing of the approval and certification of new buildings to better audit energy efficiency ratings;

• Clarify transitional arrangements on potential new requirements to energy rating assessors;

• Develop information sheets, clarifying the two different ratings schemes;

• Commence a consultation process on ratings, starting with releasing a discussion paper by the end of April 2009, and

• Give us hard data each year in annual reports on how many energy ratings are being audited, for both kinds of ratings.”

“I am very pleased that the Planning Minister and his department have been so cooperative on this matter, and have committed to reducing the general confusion over which ratings are used and for which kinds of buildings.”

“Resolving these issues will deliver a win for all those in the housing market who want the assurance that the star rating on their purchase is accurate,” Ms Le Couteur said.

ACT Greens spokesperson for Planning, Caroline Le Couteur MLA, will introduce a bill this week designed to minimise the environmental and financial costs of hot water heating for ACT homes.

Under Ms Le Couteur’s bill, hot water systems installed in new ACT houses and townhouses will need to be low emission types such as solar, heat pump, or efficient gas. From next year, the efficiency standard will also apply to anyone replacing a hot water system in their existing house or townhouse.

“With the Government rebates currently available, efficient hot water systems are actually the most sensible economic choice right now,” Ms Le Couteur said.

“We can make significant and fast environmental gains just by introducing well targeted energy efficiency standards such as this one.”

“Water heating accounts for a quarter of the energy used in an average home and contributes 3% of Australia’s total Greenhouse Gas emissions.”

“Replacing an electric storage system with a gas-boosted solar system reduces the amount of energy used to heat water by around 95% – which reduces emissions and saves on energy bills.”

“Over the past few years, South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland have all implemented similar legislation.”

“My Bill will catch the ACT up to other States and encourage others into action.”

“The Federal Government has talked about regulating hot water efficiency for the last four years. There is no reason to delay introduction of a standard in the ACT any longer,” Ms Le Couteur said.

ACT Greens MLA Amanda Bresnan today welcomed ACT Government support of her initiatives to bring community expertise into its planning for the Commonwealth’s $96m housing stimulus in the ACT Assembly today.

“I had wanted to set up an expert group to advise on green building design and a community services forum to partner with the government on the implementation of  its housing plans”  Ms Bresnan said today.

“But neither the Government nor the Liberal Opposition were quite prepared to support me all the way.”

“I did however win a commitment from Mr Hargreaves to run a forum with energy and building experts before the housing contracts are set up, and to work with the community sector as the housing projects take shape.”

“The Greens are keen to see the ACT Government use this Commonwealth investment wisely.”

“Despite the very tight time frames that the Commonwealth has set, the Greens believe the wider Canberra community can add considerable value to the Government’s process” Ms Bresnan said.

The ACT Greens are keen to ensure that development of North Weston and Molonglo Valley is sustainable and medium-density.

ACT Greens Spokesperson for Planning, Caroline Le Couteur lodged a submission to the Federal Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts yesterday regarding the land release proposal.

“This new development is the right place for urban infill and can help ease the housing shortage,” Ms Le Couteur said today.

“It can also help provide for the demand for medium-density housing without having to compromise the character of some of Canberra’s older suburbs.”

“At this point in time, it is vital that we ensure that any new housing is built to a high standard of sustainability.”

“Although only two relatively small blocks are to be released in North Weston, it is an excellent opportunity to showcase sustainable inner urban design,” Ms Le Couteur said.

The Land Development Authority is set to release 2 new sites of land in North Weston next month as the start of a land release program extending across the Molonglo Valley over the next 20 years.

Key recommendations of the submission include:

• Ensuring housing is medium-density, given the demand for housing in prime central locations, as it is close to Cooleman Court and also handy to Woden, Barton and Civic;

• ensuring housing and block orientation are highly efficient, including block and building planning, materials and appliances;

• protecting potential Pink-tailed Worm Lizard habitat, and ensuring landscaping protects these values;

• making the areas cat containment zones;

• make public transport accessible from the outset, including ensuring that the public bus route runs nearby and cycle lanes are accessible.

Caroline Le Couteur will be available for comment at the proposed development site (RSPCA turn-off, round-about @ cnr Cotter Road & Kirkpatrick St) at 11:40am today.