Canberra Liberals MLA Mark Parton responded to the potential corruption risk identified at the Suburban Land Agency (SLA) in the latest Inquiry into the Auditor-General’s Report on residential land supply and release by calling on the ACT Government to let Canberrans “know what it’s up to”.
The Report offered 18 recommendations to the SLA, and while the ACT’s anti-corruption watchdog cleared the SLA of corruption, it identified a “number of significant vulnerabilities that pose potential corruption risks for the Suburban Land Agency and the integrity of its processes”.
Mr Parton put forward a motion in the ACT Legislative Assembly on behalf of Liberals leader Elizabeth Lee yesterday, 19 October, calling on the government to “be far more upfront with Canberrans about how they classify land, how they come up with the indicative land release program, how they’re tracking against their targets, how they set their affordable housing targets, and publish their results much faster”.
He said the SLA recently published its 2021-22 annual report which showed it released 517 blocks in 2021-22, a shortfall of 114 against a target of 631 in the Indicative Land Release Program (ILRP).
The previous year, 2020-21, the SLA released 950 blocks, a shortfall of 244 against the target of 1,194 blocks (a target more than 500 higher than the following year’s target of 631).
Additionally, Mr Parton was also critical of the government’s timeframe for releasing the ACT Land and Property Reports.
Recommendation 4 recommends the Reports are published no later than three months after the reporting period, yet Mr Parton alleges the ACT government’s July to December 2021 Report was released more than seven months after the end of the reporting period.
He suggested the ACT government “had things that they were trying to hide” from Canberrans.
In response, ACT Minister for Housing Yvette Berry reminded the opposition the SLA referred itself to the ACT Integrity Commission to receive advice on ways to improve process for land supply and to ensure there was no corruption within the Agency.
Speaking on behalf of Minister for Planning and Land Management Mick Gentleman, Ms Berry said the government are carefully considering the Inquiry’s recommendations and findings of the Report and progressing their work to release land in line with the ILRP.
“We will provide an update to the Legislative Assembly as this work progresses. I also note that the government’s position in relation to the audit and its findings were set out in the government response tabled on the 2nd of December 2020, and the government has since maintained that position for the purposes of the submission to the standing committee. Most recommendations were either agreed or agreed in principle,” Ms Berry said.
Ms Berry said that as far as she was aware, there was no corruption found in investigations conducted by the ACT Integrity Commission on the three main matters that have been brought to the public’s attention, and the ACT government remain committed to supporting land for release in the Territory.
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