Residential land releases worth up to $2.5 billion in the ACT are being hit with long delays because of a bureaucratic bottleneck, with the ACT government blaming its federal counterpart for the hold-up.
The delays look set to leave thousands of Canberra homebuyers in limbo and hit the ACT government's budget position, still heavily reliant on income from land sales and stamp duty on the transactions.
Treasurer Andrew Barr has told The Canberra Times that work needed to allow the release of 8300 blocks in Molonglo and Gungahlin was on hold while federal environmental assessments were delayed.
Mr Barr said that delays in carrying out checks required under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act meant that builders could not get on-site to construct vital services in Molonglo Stage II, Moncrieff, Lawson and Throsby where between 8000 and 10,000 new blocks are earmarked to come to the market in the next two years.
Another 2000 blocks in Kenny were also in danger of being caught up in the bureaucratic tangle.
The ACT government hopes to release more than 18,000 blocks in the next four years, but Mr Barr conceded that it was likely to only be able to bring about 3000 sites to market this financial year, well short of its target of more than 5000.
The treasurer, who has a meeting scheduled with the federal Environment Minister Tony Burke to discuss the problem, said that staff shortages in the Commonwealth Environment Department meant that the lengthy process required under the act were not being carried out, causing long blow-outs in the schedule for bringing the thousands of blocks to market.
''Some of these referrals have been with the Commonwealth, not just for months, but for many many months, hence my meeting with Tony Burke,'' Mr Barr said.
''All I'm seeking from him is to get the staff in place so that within the Commonwealth agency, so these referrals are given some priority.''
But Mr Burke, asked yesterday if staff shortages were to blame, said that his department was ''well equipped'' to handle the ACT's EPBC referrals.
Mr Barr said he had concerns about the way that the EPBC act was being applied, and was worried that big environmental studies already been carried out for the entire Gungahlin area were being duplicated.
''Particular areas find their way into the assessment process in a way that would seem to be above and beyond what is required,'' Mr Barr said.
''The whole Gungahlin area was subject to this sort of work during the 1990s when it was initially settled upon as an area for urban development so in my view there is a sense of overkill about these processes and constantly having to return to update previous pieces of work.''
Mr Barr said that he had asked for the EPBC process to be fast-tracked for what he called some priority projects like the Catholic high school planned and the district playing fields earmarked for the Gungahlin suburb of Throsby.
''Then what we've done is referred the rest of Gungahlin in a job lot,'' he said. ''But it's always a balance of how much you want to put in as a job lot and how much you want to mark for urgent attention.''
Mr Burke said yesterday that the EPBC process had to be rigorous.
''The Environment Department is well equipped to conduct these rigorous and thorough assessments in a timely manner. I recently jointly announced with the ACT government my approval of the Molonglo strategic assessment which delivers a streamlined release of land that subject to certain criteria does not require further assessment under the EPBC Act. This approval opened up planning and development of affordable homes for up to 55000 people.''
The meeting between the two ministers is scheduled to occur within two weeks.
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