The Territory elections are six weeks away. The price of real estate and housing, although falling, is still among the main issues.
Yet the development of the new suburb of Kilgariff, up to 1200 blocks south of The Gap, is still little more than sign by the side of the Stuart Highway.
The head works – power, water, sewage etc, have been taken to the edge of the planned suburb by the government. But what happens inside seems set to remain up in the air until after the elections.
And that includes the main question: Kilgariff is public land unencumbered by native title. Will the people’s land be made available to them just at the cost of its development, inside and out, or will a developer, and the government, make a motza out of it?
MLA Robyn Lambley raised that question when she successfully stood for by-election in Araluen two years ago.
The Minister for Central Australia, Karl Hampton, dodges the question – as he does most.
So this is where we stand, according to the Department of Lands and Planning:-
Q: Will the department be in charge of selling all the land?
A: Land in Kilgariff will be offered to the development industry for the detailed design and construction of internal roads and services required to create individually titled residential allotments, under a development agreement with the Northern Territory Government.
Q: Who will the developer be?
A: The government has not yet determined who the developer will be.
Q: Will the developer be charged for the land? If so, how much?
A: Developers are typically invited to compete for development rights. These proposals consider land value and any other conditions or improvements.
Q: How much will the developer sell the blocks for?
A: We expect the end value of the blocks will be determined by market forces.
Q: Will the developer carry out the subdivision work (internal roads, power, water, sewage, etc)?
A: Yes.
Q: Is the government going to charge the developer for the head works? If so, how much?
A: These improvements are considered in a commercial proposal to Government for development rights.
This development does not need to follow market price for land. It should be cost + %. Kilgariff was about affordable land to assist those who could not enter the housing market due to the ridiculous cost of real estate.
Back in 2006 my friend sold her 3 bed duplex for 125k. Now that same place was sold for 345k. Rents are unrealistic. And our town needs to offer opportunity to new families and Territory Housing must utilize this opportunity to increase their stock at affordable costings to government. We need, by housing’s own waiting lists, more than 800 various types of dwellings to empty their waiting lists. Housing has sold off over 600 of its housing stock since 2004. This would indeed raise the question why Territory Housing has failed to replace housing or at least replace 50% of its sales.
We currently have overcrowding in government housing. Homelessness is on the increase in below zero temperatures and yet this government fails to see the human tragedy, the human face of suffering. And fails to recognize their responsibility to the people of the Territory, the people they will be asking to vote for them in August. This government has acknowledged their inability to provide the basic requirement for low income people of The Alice, to provide housing for young families on middle income affordable, land to get a start in life and home ownership. Labor once represented the working class. Now they represent money and spending and make the poor, poorer. The basic rights of the people are no longer the government’s concern. The concern for the government is to ensure we all live in a struggle to survive.
Goodness me Janet, if what you say is true, what hope does the average blackfella have in the short or long term? Little wonder the first choice is to camp out regardless of the weather. “Kilgariff” may turn out to be as handy as the earliest Mal Brough reforms.
If Mt John development is anything to go by we have a long time to wait before Kilgariff will eventuate. I have lost track of how long Mt John has dragged on for and there were huge concerns about the quality of the headworks after it apparently “leaked” when first used. At this stage the only house I can see going up belongs to a builder from a local construction company. It is seriously a joke the length of time for available affordable land in this town. Darwin can’t see past the gas project going on up there and doesn’t really give a toss as the population figures show for Alice (remained pretty much stagnant). It feels like they don’t want this town to prosper and grow. Then they wonder why people are leaving … things that make you go mmmmm